Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Is Oprah preparing to leave her syndicated show behind and take her act to OWN, her long-delayed cable network? That's the rumor anyway. [DH]
• The new editor of the Observer is Kyle Pope, formerly of Portfolio. [NYO]
• Cable meets kindergarten: Fox News will stop being mean to MSNBC only if MSNBC first stops being mean to Fox News, reports Rupert Murdoch. [NYT]
• Fortune and Time are expected to be hardest hit by layoffs at Time Inc. [NYP]
• Scripps has beat out News Corp. for control of the Travel Channel. [BN]
• Susan Plagemann has been named the new publisher of Vogue. Meanwhile, Tom Florio will now oversee Vogue, Bon Appétit and Traveler. [WWD]
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek (or BBW for short) has its new team in place. [NYT]More

Happy Birthday | It's been a tough year for Annie Leibovitz, but maybe she can start fresh from here on out? The financially challenged photographer turns 60 today. Others celebrating: designer Donna Karan is turning 61. Kelly Ripa turns 39. Lorraine Bracco is 55. Sting is 58. Actress Camilla Belle is turning 23. '80s pop star Tiffany is 37. And two of Hugh Hefner's latest girlfriends, Karissa and Kristina Shannon, are turning 20. A roundup of a few people celebrating birthdays this weekend—including Al Sharpton and Liev Schreiber—is below. More

Annie Leibovitz Lines Up a New Gig | Photographer Annie Leibovitz may be making an effort to dig her way out of the epic financial mess that nearly left her bankrupt earlier this month. Along five other "personalities," she's been tapped by Louis Vuitton to design a monogrammed canvas backpack for the company. It's actually part of a charity project that will benefit the Red Cross, so it's entirely possible she won't earn a dime from her contribution. Then again, as Grazia notes, here's hoping her work earns her a commission of some sort! [Grazia]

Annie Leibovitz Gets a Rainy Day Gift | It was looking pretty bleak there for awhile, but Annie Leibovitz appears to have been rescued from the brink of financial disaster. She's reached a settlement with Art Capital Group over the $24 million loan it provided her last year. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed, but at least there's only one less Condé Nast photographer headed to a courtroom in the near future. [BN]

Another Day, Another Leibovitz Lawsuit | If you're keeping track of the number of lawsuits that have been filed against photographer Annie Leibovitz, it's time to sharpen your undoubtedly dull pencil: She's been sued again. According to a suit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, a set design company called Mary Howard Studio claims "Leibovitz stiffed it out of more than $160,000 for work on some of her best known projects over the past two years." [NYP, previously]

Leibovitz Sued Again | Last week, Annie Leibovitz scored a small victory when a judge granted the financially troubled photographer an extra month to come up with the $24 million she owes creditors, or face the loss of her real estate holdings and photography collection. Whatever momentary relief that ruling provided her is probably gone now: An Italian photographer is now suing her for $300,000 for allegedly using his photos of Venice and Rome without his permission as part of a calendar for Lavazza coffee. [BBC, previously]

Annie Buys Some Time | There hasn't been much good news for photographer Annie Leibovitz the past few months. But today there is! Leibovitz had been given a deadline of September 8 to respond to a lawsuit that alleged she'd failed to repay a $24 million loan that had been extended to her last year. Yesterday, however, a judge granted her another month to either respond to the suit or settle the case with the lender, Art Capital. Will that give her enough time to figure a way out? Or is she just putting off the inevitable, which could include filing for bankruptcy or surrendering her real estate holdings and collection of photographs? See you back here in 30 days! [NYP]

How many star photographers who regularly shoot for Vanity Fair now find themselves in the middle of financial scandal? Two! There's Annie Leibovitz, of course, who was sued last month over a $24 million loan. Then there's François-Marie Banier, the photographer responsible for Vanity Fair's July 2009 cover featuring Johnny Depp, who goes on trial next month in France for allegedly exploiting Liliane Bettencourt, the 86-year-old heiress to the L'Oréal cosmetics fortune, who has handed Banier some $1.3 billion in cash, stock, and art in recent years. Naturally, these things usually come in threes. Watch your step, Patrick Demarchelier!

New York's epic article about Annie Leibovitz in this week's issue is well worth a read, particularly since it sheds a little light on how it is one of the world's highest-paid photographers now finds herself on the brink of financial ruin. (If the only person you'll allow to repair your air-conditioner has to travel to NYC from Vermont to do the work, that's probably not a good sign.) Leibovitz's financial fate will likely be sealed in September when the $24 million loan she secured from Art Capital Group last year is due. Interestingly, though, Leibovitz appears to be hinting that the terms of the loan— which required her to put up the rights to her photos and real estate holdings as collateral—only became apparent to her after the Times reported on Art Capital Group back in February. Friends of the photographer suggest that Leibovitz had no idea she was giving up so much when she took out the loan; they also seem to be shifting some of the blame to Ken Starr, the financial adviser who took the photographer on as a client in 2007 and who was also responsible for introducing Leibovitz to Art Capital Group. Pinning the blame on Starr, who boasts an insanely long list of celebrity clients, may be a hard argument to make.More

Financially-challenged photographer Annie Leibovitz was sued last week by Art Capital Group, the high-end pawn shop that loaned her $24 million last year in exchange for the rights to her photography collection and her collection of real estate holdings in the West Village and upstate New York. It will be some time before we find out whether Leibovitz will get to hang on to her assets, but it seems she's already suffered one minor defeat in court. In a court ruling over whether Getty Images went behind Art Capital's back to negotiate a deal to represent Leibovitz on a freelance basis, New York State's highest court misspelled the name of the "world-renowned photographer" 37 times. Don't you just hate exceptions to the normally reliable "i before e, except after c" rule? [NYS Supreme Court, PDF]

Annie Leibovitz has been facing serious financial problems for a number of months now. But things took a turn for the worse last week when Leibovitz was served with a suit by the financial firm that lent her $24 million earlier this year, and she now faces the grim prospect she'll eventually have to relinquish control of her real estate holdings and the rights to her archive of photographs. The big, unanswered question, though, is where, exactly, all the money went. On top of the $24 million she borrowed from Art Capital Group, she takes home an estimated $2 million-a-year salary from Condé Nast, and collects millions for her advertising work. Is she just really bad at managing her money? Or is it something else? Bloomberg News' Katya Kazakina, who suggests Leibovitz might be better off filing for bankruptcy rather than fight her creditors in court, looks into another possible money pit. More

Another Lawsuit For Leibovitz | Things have gone from bad to worse for photographer Annie Leibovitz. The glorified pawn shop (or "art finance firm," as they prefer to be known) that lent Leibovitz boatloads of money against every photo she has ever taken as well as the value of the real estate she owns in the West Village and upstate New York, has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against her. It's accusing her of "boldly deceptive conduct" for not allowing appraisers to come inside her home: "Among other demands in the suit, the company, Art Capital Group, based in Manhattan, is asking the court to order Ms. Leibovitz to allow real estate agents access to her town houses in Greenwich Village so the property can be appraised and prepared for sale to pay back the loans." [NYT]

• In the market for a $40,000 dress? Better jump on a plane to Paris. Haute Couture Week kicked off today. [AP, Vogue UK, Independent, FWD]
• The situation at Christian Lacroix, which filed for bankruptcy a few weeks back, is getting bleaker by the day: The company may be reduced from 124 employees to 12 if a buyer doesn't materialize soon. [WWD, Cut]
• The JCPenney at the Manhattan Mall opens in a mere 25 days. Don't forget to update your cousins in Omaha so they can mark their calendars. [Racked]
• Roberto Cavalli claims he never pays attention to costs ("I don't know anything about the financial crisis"), thinks Dubai is "a city for the future," and says all he really wants is to be loved. So, yes, he's human. [Times UK]
• Elle's Joe Zee is now tweeting, just so you know. [Twitter]More

• Despite the fact his dad says they're  planning a Kabbalah commitment ceremony and he's currently shacking up at her apartment, Jesus Luz tells a Brazilian TV station that Madonna is "just a friend." Also: He really doesn't mind it if you refer to him as her "boy toy." [NYDN]
• Kiefer Sutherland has apologized to Jack McCollough for head-butting him, and charges against the actor are likely to be dropped. Not that he's learned much of a lesson: He was spotted boozing it up on the LES with his daughter in tow last week. [NYP, P6]
• The celebrity crime wave continues: Kevin Bacon had his BlackBerry stolen from him last week. And Monica Bellucci and husband Vincent Cassel had more than a quarter of a million dollars in cash and jewels taken from them while they were attending the Cannes Film Festival. [NYP, DM]
• Mel Gibson has confirmed that he and his Russian musician girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, are expecting. [People, NYDN]
• Mariah Carey spent Memorial Day in Turkey. Why Turkey? Because a hotel paid her $1.5 million to perform, that's why. [P6]More

• Believe it or not, but some celebrities have been forced to wear the same outfit twice now that we're in the middle of a recession. Or (like Lindsay Lohan, left) they're now passing their hand-me-downs to family members. Sad times, friends, sad times. [NYDN]
• A preview of the 60 Minutes segment on Anna Wintour (which airs Sunday) is online for your viewing pleasure. [NYM]
• Phillip Lim is expanding into bathing suits, shoes, and lingerie. [Pipeline]
• A visit to Betsey Johnson's house in East Hampton. [Hamptons.com]
• Matthew Williamson's second H&M collection hits stores tomorrow. [Racked]
• Catfight! A roundup of fashion's biggest feuds ever. [TDB] More