There’s a parallel between Annie Leibovitz and former portrait subject Michael Jackson and it’s not just the fantastic financial hole both had dug themselves into with wild spending.

No matter how much international hype fattens you up, don’t discount the possibility of being eaten one day. Leibovitz really needed to dump loads of money on a three-building residence in Greenwich Village. ArtInfo credits that and other real estate fiascos to being “ill-advised” (not “ill-advised” in a sense of, “Sure, Michael, those bandages on your face are a perfect burn victim disguise and no one will recognize you in that sparkly Captain Crunch outfit, fancy fedora and finger tape,” but similar).

In short, Leibovitz had one year to give back Art Capital’s $24 million of a loan or they’d take her collateral of copyrights to 100,000 photos and a million negatives. Regardless of swirling in hype, she failed to come up with the loot. The photographer was rescued by Colony Capital, the same company that at one point saved Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Colony Capital paid off the Art Capital hounds and now Leibovitz is under contract to them for a traveling exhibition and some “new projects.”

Regurgitated from the dregs of debt, Leibovitz can go back to happily snapping pop candy. She’s traded being thoroughly plundered for glamorous indentured servitude. Boo-fucking-hoo. |ArtInfo|