Annie Leibovitz photographs are on view at the Brooklyn Museum starting this week through January 2007. The exhibit is aptly titled Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005 and will contain more than 100 photographs. Annie has the knack for making her subjects look irresistible, which is why they are her greatest fans. Check it:

Leibovitz’s 1994 shot of Brad Pitt for Vanity Fair is a case in point. The screen star sprawls across a bed draped in a velvety orange counterpane, in a room with custard-yellow walls and rust-colored floors. He wears leopard-skin pants, cowboy boots and a multi-hued striped shirt open at the chest and unbuttoned at the wrists. With one hand he strokes his long blond hair, while the other lies languorously across his waist. The pose suggests abandon, while the faraway expression in his stunning eyes signals absorption in some deep thought.

Leibovitz and Pitt collaborate on the tableau. The actor’s reverie reveals nothing; he may be trying to remember whether he watered his plants, for all the viewer can tell. He’s a professional, playing the role of “Brad Pitt,” vulnerable and wistful yet comfortingly macho artiste. For her part, Leibovitz draws on the library of art-historical references she must have in her brain. Here, she has posed Pitt to resemble the dead Thomas Chatterton, as rendered by the Victorian painter Henry Wallis.

Check out one more Brad article after the jump from USA Today!

The Golden Boy

By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY

These days, it’s good to be Brad.

To pay the bills, he stars in and produces films, some artsy (Running With Scissors, which he produced, opens today; Babel, in which he stars, is out Oct. 27) and some slick (Ocean’s Thirteen just wrapped filming).

To give back, he helps with Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts and speaks out about global warming and poverty.

And at the end of the day, he goes home to Angelina Jolie and children Maddox, 5, Zahara, 1, and Shiloh, 4 months.

The actor, 42, once dismissed as a hunk with chiseled abs, has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most compelling leading men.

“I saw him go from this gawky kid to this unbelievably very solid, confident guy,” says celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, who shot Pitt years ago and saw him recently during a shoot with Jolie. “I feel like he has an inner life now. Not that the other fellow wasn’t attractive — he was very attractive — but he was a kid. I just think he has grown up.”

Those close to Pitt say he’s riding high, at work and at home.

“I saw Brad two weeks ago,” says pal George Clooney. “He’s in such great spirits. He’s a really smart man who has grown into someone I’m really impressed by all the time. He’s a good friend. And what an amazing dad.”

Though Pitt’s looks still wow the ladies, his appeal now is more than skin deep.

“People love him,” says Entertainment Tonight’s Leonard Maltin. “He’s in a great place and seems to be doing everything right.”

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