Maybe taking pictures of celebrities and hanging out at celebrity venues doesn't make you one of the rich and famous after all. Annie Leibovitz, the famed photographer, is in serious debt, at least according to the New York Post. The paper reports that she owes $715,000 for things like equipment rentals, renovations, unpaid taxes and an aborted book project. She racked up these debts despite a reported $2 million annual deal with Vanity Fair, where she takes fabulous and controversial pictures.

As we are learning almost daily from celebrity foreclosure and bankruptcy stories, Leibowitz is hardly unique among the glitterati for getting into money trouble. The latest news from the Ed McMahon front, by the way, is that the deal to save his house is off.

Ed McMahon has finally found a buyer for his multi-million dollar house avoiding foreclosure. Reportedly, his mortage lenders filed notice of default in Februrary when McMahon was over $644,00 in arrears. When McMahon was interviewed regarding his money woes, he blamed his financial problems on having broken his neck about 18 months ago, preventing him from working.

I certainly can empathize with health issues causing financial hardship, but where's the bucks? McMahon worked for over 30 years on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, was the host of Star Search and spokesperson for dozens of products. I repeat: "Where's the bucks?"

While several accounts connect McMahon's problems to the credit squeeze and U.S. housing downturn, I think it has a lot more to do with poor money management. At 85 years old, with a career that spanned decades, you would think that McMahon would be financial secure. But I have seen this before.

Who is making it? Who is not? We've concocted retirement scorecards for some showcase retirees in entertainment, politics and sports. See the full list here.

Loser: Ed McMahon
Former occupation/notable position held: The Tonight Show, longtime Johnny Carson sidekick.
Activities during retirement: TV host; foreclosure victim
Retirement Report Card Grade: C-

Ed McMahon got off to a strong start on his post-Tonight Show career, making his recent difficulties all the more poignant. How did he end up in the headlines recently as the victim of foreclosure?

Transitioning to a new chapter is one of the hardest things to do, but McMahon got a running start, parlaying his fame into a hosting gig on American Idol-prototype Star Search, even while riding shotgun with Johnny nightly on NBC. He also co-hosted with Dick Clark the popular TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC, among numerous other gigs in the twilight of, and soon after, his Tonight Show career.

Now it seems like it might all be gone. While McMahon's financial details are not fully known, it is likely that while wealthy by most standards, McMahon needs steady and heavy cash flow to maintain a lifestyle built for a younger celebrity with greater earning power. McMahon (and/or those advising him) obviously lost touch with his marketability and sustained potential. Bit parts in flops like 2005's Bewitched and a weekend radio show simply don't rain down big network money.

Now McMahon finds himself appealing to Larry King's CNN audience as a potential victim of the mortgage foreclosure crisis. A broken neck reported earlier this year, coupled with a bad fall last year, hasn't help matters. McMahon perhaps best serves as a sobering example of retirement's dynamic nature, and for how a fast and fortuitous start doesn't necessarily make for retirement-long success.

The best retirement plans – particularly, non-financial plans – are built to be revisited and adapted over time. In some cases, we need to rewrite these plans the fly/. Boomers may on average live some 25 years in retirement – too long for a static plan.

McMahon appears to have a big fund of goodwill to draw from, and we can hope his story will turn out OK. Somewhere, Johnny may well be air-swinging a putter for him.

Michael Burnham is CEO of My Next Phase, a consulting firm offering non-financial retirement planning products and services (www.mynextphase.com).