Hollywood Crush › Forbes

Lovestruck teenage "Twilight" fans will always moon over the tormented, sensitive, so-romantic-it's-almost creepy Edward Cullen, but today, Forbes magazine confirms what forward-thinking and financially savvy girls have known for years: It's Carlisle, head of the Cullen household, who's the real catch (too bad he's married). With a fortune valued around $36 billion, Carlisle Cullen joins Chuck Bass, Scrooge McDuck and Bruce Wayne in this year's Forbes Fictional 15, a list of the richest fictional characters ever to grace the literary or cinematic worlds.

We're admittedly a little peeved to see just one wealthy lady in the roundup—isn't it about time someone created an ultra-rich, female vigilante whose name isn't Lara Croft?—but it's nice to see some familiar faces on the list. Chuck, the billionaire playboy of "Gossip Girl," scores 13th place—a showing which the self-involved and greedy boy would no doubt want to improve upon. (Let's hope he wins control of Bass Industries before next year's roundup.) But it's Carlisle, whose fortune ranks him at No. 2, who's easily the most crushworthy character aboard.

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Tags Forbes, Twilight

Vampocracy! Vamptatorship! The Democratic Republic of Sparkly Vampires!

...Oh, sorry, we're just practicing—because with fang-related characters on two notable lists of powerful people just released by Forbes and Entertainment Weekly, it looks like the "Twilight Saga" is ready to take over the world (even more than it has already)!

First up: Forbes' list of the planet's 100 most powerful women, featuring author Stephenie Meyer sitting dead-center at spot No. 49. Not that her heavyweight status was ever in doubt; not only does she have six bestselling novels and a multimillion-dollar movie deal under her belt, but Meyer has single-handedly convinced an entire generation of teenage girls that the best possible boyfriend is one who sneaks into your bedroom at night to watch you sleep and can only barely restrain himself from murdering you. But in a hot way!

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Tags Entertainment Weekly, Forbes, Robert Pattinson, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

By George Loomis

“Twilight” stars have already invaded our movie theaters and magazines, so it should come as no surprise that they now occupy the Forbes Celebrity 100 as well. This year’s Forbes power list contains a mix of newcomers and mainstays, featuring everyone from lovebirds Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart to “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe. Even Britney Spears returned to the top 10 in a big way!

While Britney moved up to #6, Can’t Be Tamed artist Miley Cyrus rushed to fill Britney’s 2009 rank, claiming #13. It must have been Britney’s endorsement deals with Elizabeth Arden and Candies that did the trick — not to mention her successful tour — but she’s not the only lady of pop with power. Almost as predictable as the “Eclipse” leads climbing Forbes’ ranks is Lady Gaga’s tremendous debut on the list at #4.

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Tags Britney Spears, Daniel Radcliffe, Forbes, Kristen Stewart, Lady gaga, Miley Cyrus, Robert Pattinson, Stephenie Meyer, Taylor Swift

Forbes has recently published their list of the top-earning celebrity couples in Hollywood, and unsurprisingly, the star power of Beyonce and Jay-Z could not be beat. For the second year in a row, the musical power couple has topped the list, though this year their recession-hit income dropped a noticeable amount from $162 million in 2008 to $122 million in 2009.

But despite the drop in income (honestly, they have no reason to be complaining), Beyonce and Jay have almost doubled the income of the second place couple. This year it's Harrison Ford and girlfriend Calista Flockhart, who earned a combined $69 million (due largely to his $65 million intake from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"), but last year B and J did double Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith's income of $85 million.

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Tags Angelina Jolie, Beyonce, Brad Pitt, Calista Flockhart, David Beckham, Ellen DeGeneres, Forbes, Harrison Ford, Jay-Z, Portia de Rossi, Victoria Beckham

The primetime television industry is dying. From the writer’s strike a few years passed to Tina Fey’s swipe at NBC at the Emmy’s, it’s something that has been much discussed in recent months. According to Forbes, some ladies are still managing to pull a profit from an industry that is losing money daily. Their top 10 highest earning actresses on primetime TV (calculated before taxes and other expenses) earned an estimated $116 million between June 1, 2008 and June 1, 2009. Unsurprisingly, Tyra Banks tops the list.

A combination of “America’s Next Top Model,” “The Tyra Show” and cameo appearances (like on “Gossip Girl”) earned Tyra her money on screen, but with her work behind the camera producing shows like “True Beauty” and the since cancelled “Stylista,” Tyra has managed to pull in $30 million in a year. Not too bad for someone who used to be the face of Victoria’s Secret, going as Forbes puts it, from “supermodel” to “super-personality.”

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Tags Eva Longoria, Forbes, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Katherine Heigl, Tina Fey, Tyra Banks

If someone were to ask you whom the best investment a studio could make for their leading lady in a film, your best guess probably wouldn’t be Naomi Watts. But according to Forbes, the actress best known for her role in “The Ring” offers the best bang for her buck, even more so than Angelina Jolie.

Forbes compiled their top 10 list based on the 100 biggest female stars in Hollywood who have starred in at least three films in the past five years that opened in more than 500 theaters. That rules out most art films, to translate the business lingo. They then calculated each star’s earnings per movie based on their upfront pay, earnings from box office receipts, and DVD and TV sales. This was weighted against a calculated operating income for each film. Still following?

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Tags Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Forbes, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Meryl Streep, Naomi Watts, Natalie Portman, Rachel McAdams

This week Forbes released its annual Celebrity 100 list ranking the world's most powerful celebrities, including a rundown of the silver screen's highest paid actresses. The top 10 was fairly predictable (actress/ambassador Angelina Jolie took the No. 1 spot), but there were a few surprises (uh, where's Julia Roberts?). Take a look at the full list below:

1. Angelina Jolie, $27 million
2. Jennifer Aniston, $25 million
3. Meryl Streep, $24 million
4. Sarah Jessica Parker, $23 million
5. Cameron Diaz, $20 million
6. Sandra Bullock, $15 million
7. Reese Witherspoon, $15 million
8. Nicole Kidman, $12 million
9. Drew Barrymore, $12 million
10. Renee Zellweger, $10 million

Being the curious folks that we are at Hollywood Crush, we started wondering how this list would shape up 10 years from now, when many of today's tweeners will have come of age and cinema staples like Angelina and Jennifer might be slowing down. While we have no idea how to calculate dollar amounts (we're journalists, duh!), here's a list — and accompanying flipbook — of our best guess at who will be at the top of the marquee in 2019. Read more...

Tags Abigail Breslin, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, Cameron Diaz, Dakota Fanning, Drew Barrymore, Forbes, Jennifer Aniston, Kristen Stewart, Megan Fox, Meryl Streep, Miley Cyrus, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock, Sarah Jessica Parker