The new issue of Vanity Fair is going to be flying off the shelves…

Photo diva Annie Liebovitz captured some rarely seen images of The Tiger posing sans-shirt, but taken before he walked around sans-dignity.

Photo by Annie Liebovitz.

Cover by Vanity Fair.

Soiled public image by Tiger Woods.

The photos are accompanied by an article by Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights. (A name like Buzz Bissinger will inevitably lead to a life in the public eye, in my opinion!) Bissinger disects an interview he conducted with Woods in 1997.

     Annie Liebovitz had the opportunity to do the photo shoot of the First Family, and the “Official First Family” photo has been released.  Regardless of your agreement or disagreement with his policies, Liebovitz always brings out great pictures!  But, hey, were is BO and Grandma Robinson?

The last time we here at Told Ya So got bored, we Googled Miley Cyrus. The last time Miley Cyrus got bored, she took skanky photos of herself and they went viral. Some celebrities are too young, and before they know it, they’re naked. That’s right. These over-sexed, over-made celebutants push the envelope until daddy has to step in.

Cue, Miley Cyrus.

Dear Miley Cyrus, 

Honey, we love you. We really do. Your music inspires us, and we can’t stop humming “Party in the USA.” We are Americans after all. However, your recent behavior gives us cause for alarm. We’re a forgiving people. We turned a blind eye to the Annie Leibovitz scandal.

We weren’t super startled by your apparent pole dancing routine at the VMAs.

And we generally turn our noses to any bad press we read about you. But Miley, the news we heard recently earned you a letter from the gang here at Told Ya So.

Is it true that you’re going to have a cameo in the Sex in the City sequel? If so, say it ain’t so! We want to love you and support you and believe that our belle from Tennessee is still as pure as they day you premiered; but this?! Miley, Sex in the City is no place for a woman of your age. Your tween following will not be pleased, and neither will we!

Now, we understand your desire to reinvent yourself. No one wants to be the Hannah Montana rock star forever. And we certainly understand the need to not turn down work, especially during this economic climate. But standards are standards, and we urge you to get some. We’re still jaded by those semi-nudey photos you tweeted of yourself last year.

Luckily, we’ve heard rumors that your camero won’t be too, ahem, sexy. And we take a collective sigh of relief for that!

Knowing you’ll make the right choice,

Told Ya So

Photos: Scarlett Johansson for Dolce&Gabbana, photographed by Annie Liebovitz

We finally got the long awaited September issue of Vogue to work today. It’s so crazy how delayed that issue is. But the movie has made this particular issue in high demand which seems to be a contributing reason for the magazine being so delayed. I flipped through it during my lunchbreak and saw some articles that looked interesting, but as with most issues of Vogue, it’s mostly full of advertisements.

I was going to meet my friend Chloé tonight but unfortunately she had to work late because they’ve got important head office visitors at her job at Zara right now so everyone had to stay late for a meeting. I’m hopefully meeting her on Friday evening after work instead. Sadly, Chloé is moving to London next week! I’m really going to miss her. It sucks that all my closest and best friends who I have stuck with through the years are all moving abroad.

Anyway, I’m pretty pooped from running around all day at work. I’m working all week but I’ll try to update the blog as much as possible! Now I’m going to go rest and read some magazines I picked up from work yesterday.

Love!

]]> http://dcdesigncoop.com/2009/09/08/annie-gitcha-canon/ Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:15:37 +0000 dcdesigncoop http://dcdesigncoop.com/2009/09/08/annie-gitcha-canon/

Not so good news for one of our world-renowned and my favorite favorite popular photographer, Annie Liebovitz. Looks like she has some people to pay off to keep her rights to the amazing photos she shoots of heads of states, celebrities and regular Joe’s around the world. She’s armed with a 50mm lense and ready to shoot! Read more on this story. From a fellow photographer… wish I could help Annie!

In the news . . .

Wikipedia moves to improve the clarity and reliability of crowdsourcing.

Youtube looking to get into the movie rental business.

Amazon makes amend for deleting Orwell from Kindles.

Open-source digital camera developed at Stanford.

Annie Leibovitz’s story underscores the danger of using intellectual property as collateral.

Britain jails first convicted cyber-bully.

Chris Brown has strong words for Oprah after comments regarding singer’s felony assault.

In blow to Internet anonymity, New York court orders “skank” blogger’s identity revealed.

Vermont’s first convicted ”sexter” gets 90 days in jail.

Nevada Supreme Court says O.J. has to stay in prison during appeal.

A great 8-page article in the NY Mag. She’s had to “leverage” the body of her work to secure loans. She’s in debt for over 24 million. It’s kind of sad that such a great artist allowed her ego to rule her finances, and essentially bankrupted her. Art Capital is the company who financed and consolidated all of Leibovitz’s debts. They are the only company entitled to sell her work and even if she is able to repay the 24 million, she will have to give them 22.5% of all of her earnings for the next two years. If she defaults, it’s 50%.

Moody period drama, easily one of the best if not the best show on television right now, returns to AMC next Sunday. Until then, feast your eyes on Bruce Handy’s VF feature, accompanied by glorious Annie Liebovitz pics,  or any of the other myriad stories feting the show. Salon serves up some mild spoilers about the third season while Sunday’s NYT teases that it will address anxiety in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis. Also: the WSJ recently took a look at the show’s female writers. And you may amuse yourself further by creating your own ‘Mad Men’ avatar, as many have already done, at AMCtv.com.

Moody period drama, easily one of the best if not the best show on television right now, returns to AMC next Sunday. Until then, feast your eyes on Bruce Handy’s VF feature, accompanied by glorious Annie Liebovitz pics,  or any of the other myriad stories feting the show. Salon serves up some mild spoilers about the third season while Sunday’s NYT teases that it will address anxiety in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis. Also: the WSJ recently took a look at the show’s female writers. And you may amuse yourself further by creating your own ‘Mad Men’ avatar, as many have already done, at AMCtv.com.

Moody period drama, easily one of the best if not the best show on television right now, returns to AMC next Sunday. Until then, feast your eyes on Bruce Handy’s VF feature, accompanied by glorious Annie Liebovitz pics,  or any of the other myriad stories feting the show. Salon serves up some mild spoilers about the third season while Sunday’s NYT teases that it will address anxiety in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis. Also: the WSJ recently took a look at the show’s female writers. And you may amuse yourself further by creating your own ‘Mad Men’ avatar, as many have already done, at AMCtv.com.

At the Annie Liebovitz exhibition in London last year, her early stuff blew me away, especially an image of a high diver. And the stuff about the deaths of Susan Sontag and her father was emotionally stunning. But most of her later stuff is a bit bleh, a bit pointless, all fame and artifice and celebrity. I just felt that it was more about her than the subjects, and more about either of them than the images.

Watching this documentary recently, she really started to annoy me; it was all me me me – she was so egotistical that about half way through she started to merge with Barbara Streisand in my half-awake brain.

I’ve just been watching another episode of the same series on BBC4, this time on Eve Arnold, the first female member of Magnum. Not a shrinking violet either, by any means. No shrinking violet would have broken that glass ceiling, no shrinking violet would have befriended Marilyn Monroe. If Joan Crawford describes someone as having balls, you wouldn’t argue. A formidable lady.

But talking about her own style, she came out with a description of her work:

“I was not aware that I was moving backward, into the shadows, but it is the best way if you are a stills photographer not to make a big thing of yourself; it is your subject who is important, so that you do become after a while recessive within the process”.

And that’s where Annie Liebovitz went wrong, I think. All artists have serious ego. But the great ones don’t allow it take over their work.

That’s where Liebovitz went wrong. Well, that and taking out a loan for $24,000,000 and not being able to pay it back. Eve Arnold wouldn’t have done that either.

Or rather, wouldn’t do – she’s still to the good at 97.

Almost the full century – imagine all the pictures of dying loved ones she could have rattled off, if that was her thing.

Thought I’d post one of my favourite editorials, the Alice in Wonderland shoot by Annie Leibovitz for US Vogue in December 2003. I find this an overwhelmingly happy combination– one of my favourite stories with beautiful dresses and photography.  It stars Natalia Vodianova as Alice, with a host of designers playing the story’s characters. In each scene Natalia wears the relevant designer’s take on a blue dress.

Above: Natalia as Alice Liddell and Olivier Theyskens as Lewis Carroll.

Tom Ford as the White Rabbit.

Drink Me.

Marc Jacobs as the Caterpillar.

Pig & Pepper.

Jean Paul Gaultier as the Chesire Cat.

Viktor and Rolf as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Stephen Jones as the Mad Hatter, Christian Lacroix as the March Hare.

John Galliano as the Queen of Hearts. Alexis Roche as his King.

Donatella Versace and Rupert Everett as the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.

Nicolas Ghesquiere.

Click on the following link to view some of the work

from today’s Quote of the Day Photographer,

Annie Liebovitz:

http://tinyurl.com/krlxlw

…When I started to be published

I thought about Margaret

Bourke-White and the whole

journalistic approach to things.

I believed I was supposed to

catch life going by me – that

I wasn’t to alter it or tamper

with it – that I was just to watch

what was going on and report it

as best I could. This shoot with John was different. I got involved,

and I realized that you can’t help but be touched by what goes on

in front of you. I no longer believe that there is such a thing as

objectivity. Everyone has a point of view. Some people call it style,

but what we’re really talking about is the guts of a photograph.

When you trust your point of view, that’s when you start

taking pictures.

Annie Liebovitz

(1949 -     )

American Portrait Photographer

My inspiration board!

My workspace at home

I went to Granit today and found the board that I wrote about yesterday! I was so excited to start adding a couple of inspirational items to it as soon as I got home. An inspiration-board is such a great thing because you can clutter it up completely and then switch out everything after a few weeks or months and start all over again.

Right now I have some inspirational quotes on the board as well as pretty accents like the butterfly down on the right and the glittery mask. The mask brings back memories, I made several of them for a fashion show my sister was having and she and I ended up wearing them to go out clubbing after the show. I’ve also stuck two postcards with photos by Annie Liebovitz on the board. The little pins with hearts on them I got at Stockhome yesterday.

Photos: seattlepi.com

I have an obsession with gay and lesbian queers. I don’t know why, but for some reason I’ve been known in my circle of friends to always be the one who knows when a celebrity is “family,” as I like to refer to them. As such, I’ve decided to fan the flames of my obsession by compling a list of gay, lesbian, and bisexual celebrities.

NOTE: This list is unofficial and in many instances unsubstantiated. Don’t sue me, I have no money anyways.

Celebrities that I realize are largely speculative are indicated with an asterisk. For the stupid people: *

<3 Gay Boys:

>>>Actors

James Dean

Marlon Brando

T.R. Knight

Rock Hudson

Luke Macfarlane

>>>Musicians:

Adam Lambert

Liberace

>>>”The Media”

Anderson Cooper*

Perez Hilton

The Lezzies:

>>>Actors

>>>Musicians

>>>”The Media”

BiBoys:

>>>Actors

>>>Musicians

>>>”The Media”

Girls Go Both Ways:

>>>Actors

Megan Foxx

Angelina Jolie

Drew Barrymore

>>>Musicians

>>>”The Media”

>>>Iono where to put this bitch.

Annie Liebovitz

TO BE CONTINUED… honestly, I just got tired of writing this halfway through. =]

Penelope Cruz and Woody Allen: The Odd Couple in Vanity Fair by Annie Leibovitz

I just recently saw Vicki Christina Barcelona and surprisingly it was my first Woody Allen movie. Now, I’m not much of a movie buff by any means, but still, like I had not seen one until now. Crazy. So the movie was great. I advise you see it. But when I saw this picture and the others in the set on FFFFOUND it immediately brought me back to my youth, looking at my mom’s Vanity Fair. The fold out cover of movie stars and artists and big shots and such. I miss just simply staring at a magazine and dreaming, studying the lighting and the composition. I used tear them out and plaster my walls with these photographs from my mothers Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines. It was never the people though or the things that they advertised, as much as it was the emotion of the photographs and the lines that created it. It was from these magazines that I realized I loved photography. I would lie in bed and just stare at them, for what seamed like hours, and it never felt like wasted time. I miss those magazines. So I guess this is sort of my belated mothers day post. So there it was.

Today we have guest “Blonde” Erika Brooks Adickman weighing in on Hannah Montana: The Movie:

ERIKA SAYS:

If the previews before your movie you are about to see are all animated, star talking animals, or involve Eddie Murphy playing a dad, it’s probably a good indication that movie you paid 10 bucks plus parking to see is not meant for your demographic.  If that is not clear enough for you here is a “creeper scale” to help you figure out how much of a creeper you will look like if you see this movie:

See 12 year old girl: normal.  Mom or Dad just above that.  26 year old woman you’re already at the age where kids start to look at you and think “Stranger Danger” even if you think you’re hip enough to see a Disney kids movie.  Next to that is a gay dude.  Cause at first you think “What are those two guys doing seeing Hannah Montana: The Movie” and then you go “Ohhhh, it’s a date.  Oh yeah I can see how there’s some serious kitch factor to Miley Cyrus”.  Above that is a straight dude.  If you are a straight male seeing this movie alone (even if it’s cause you lost a bet) you are going to look like a major creeper.  And if you are seeing this movie alone you probably are.  And wayyyy above that is Billy Ray Cyrus in this movie (but more on that in a minute).

Here’s the gist of Hannah Montana: The Movie:
Miley Stewart played by by Miley Cyrus is just your average teenage girl trying to live out every tween’s dream: the life and career of one of the world’s biggest pop stars and the life of an average high schooler.  But how can Miley have the “best of both worlds”?  Leave it to daddy Robby Ray (played by real life dad billy ray) to figure that out.  Slap on a blonde wig and some chintzy big earrings and faster than you can say “clarkkentissuperman” you’ve got yourself a secret identity.  Somewhere along the way Miley has gotten way to attached to the fame and perks of being Hannah.  So her dad decides to wrangle her back to her hometown of Crowley, Tennessee to visit her Grandma and get back to her roots.  Along the way Miley will fall in love, try to avoid a British tabloid reporter out to get the scoop on Hannah’s big secret, save a town with her music, and have many, many, many prat falls.

Let me just say that the movie opens with Miley and her BFF Lilly (Emily Osment sister of Hayley Joel) trying to get in to an arena where “Hannah” will be performing.  Miley is running late to her own concert but the guy at the front wont let them in.  She and Lilly will have to sneak in.  And I thought to myself, (and by thought i mean, shouted to the movie screen)  “As if!”  As if, Miley wouldn’t have a cell phone (probably an iPhone) to call her dad and be like “Dad I’m late let me in!”.  And, as if the security backstage wouldn’t have been alerted that if they see a girl who looks a lot like Hannah Montana but with brown hair is walking around she is not a security threat.  Saying things like this and laughing at the movie actually isn’t as fun as you would think or as fun as I expect.  It actually of makes you feel like a lone Miranda in a sea of Charlottes.  You think, “When did i get to be such a cynical old biotch?  But I also wonder if i would have ever been into Miley at 13.  Would I have idolized her?  At 13 i loved movies like Adventures in Babysitting and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead and The Babysitters Club (wow I must have had a thing for movies with Babysitter in the title).  But at least those movies involved swearing, kissing Josh Charles, and hiding your type 1 diabetes from a cute foreign exchange student.

I will say this, if you if you’ve got a big sweet tooth for Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, country hoedowns, and saccharin teen pop music it might be worth it for you to see this movie inspite of all the obvious flaws.  In spite of myself, the song “The Climb” gave me goosebumps and I went home and downloaded the hoedown throwdown) because i love songs where the dance is built right in.  And in case you’re wondering, yes I taught myself the dance after many many watches on YouTube.  So maybe I’m not such a miserable crone after all.

But I can’t in good consciousness recommend this movie.  Unless you’re babysitting your niece or are a huge Miley fan just wait and Netflix it if you’re curious at all what it’s like.  There are so many other things you could put your 10 dollars (plus parking) towards.  Instead, take 2 of those 10 dollars and download “The Climb” and “Hoedown Throwdown” and watch an old episode of Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel.  You’ll be happy driving around in your car for a good week and after watching 22 minutes of Miley on TV, glad you dodged a bullet.

Some thoughts on the movie from an ADD’d mind that can’t consolidate these into lovely paragraphs:

• Tyra Banks is in this movie. Now, I know Tyra is trying to model her career after Oprah. Well here’s something Oprah would NEVER do: a cameo in a Hannah Montana movie. She did The Color Purple, a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. She didn’t have a fake fight with Miley Cyrus on screen over shoes.
• This movie is SKAWEEEKY clean. I don’t know if they ran they film negative through Purell or rubbing alcohol before they sent it to be edited or what. But there is not one swear word, zero violence, and zero kissing. That’s right. There’s a barely legal hunky cowboy and you don’t even get to see them kiss. Sorry to disappoint all you twelve-ies.
• But because of the Disney sanitation of this film all of the jokes have to come from over the top, slap stick bits. And these bits go on FOR-EV-EVER. You just sit there and go this wasn’t that funny and it just keeps wandering off into further unfunnydom.
• In fact, the only thing questionable about this film is the way Hannah Montana dresses. She looks like she shops in the skank section of Forever 21 who probably smells like a combination of 2 different Victoria Secret Body Sprays. I’m relieved that cowboy Travis prefers Miley to Hannah. It sends a message you young girls out there that you don’t have to dress like a tart to impress a boy.
• Why is it that movies with a secret identity eventually unravel over a double booked dinner date (a la Mrs. Doubtfire)?
• With out giving too much away this movie had one of the most intense emotional scenes to involve a revolving door that I have ever witnessed in a movie. I don’t want to say too much but it had me in tears I was laughing so hard.
• Billy Ray Cyrus. It is impossible to watch this movie and not think of that Annie Liebovitz Vanity Fair spread of the two of them nuzzling. I simply can’t trust a dad with a soul patch with a teenage daughter. Especially a dad who has found a way to use his daughter’s success to his own career advantage. I’m not sure who is a creepier Dad-ager him or Joe Simpson.