Forbes Magazine has put out their annual list of “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities”. The list is based off of multiple categories which include income, TV/radio ranking, press ranking, web ranking, and social ranking. Though many celebrities on the list are to be expected there are some surprising entries this year.
Coming in at number one is Oprah. This is no shock as she made a cool $315 million dollars in 2009. She received more media attention than usual after she announced that this coming season of The Oprah Winfrey Show would be her last. Beyoncé, after having a very successful year including endorsement deals, comes in at number two. James Cameron, with the massive success of Avatar, ranks at number three.
New to the list this year is Lady Gaga. She is currently one of the top, if not the most popular music artist of the past year. This chart really shows how quickly she rose to fame. Lady Gaga was virtual unknown in the music industry prior to her amazing success last year. In 2009 she made over $62 million. She holds the top position in not only the web rank and the press rank, but also the social rank. To go from zero to number four in one year is an impressive feat even for the phenomenon that is Gaga.
A surprising entry is Tiger Woods who come in at number five. After his fall from grace as a well respected golfer due to his “extra curricular activities” it is interesting that he has made the list at all. I guess you can believe the old adage that all press is good press. He raked in $105 million last year, but was dropped by a majority of his sponsors in late 2009, including Accenture, AT&T and Pepsi. This will probably take a large hit in his income during 2010 and therefore affect his ranking in next year’s list.
Other celebrities at the top are Britney Spear, U2, Sandra Bullock, Johnny Depp and Madonna who rank six to ten respectively. The entire list can be viewed on Forbes website. It will be interesting to see what celebrities can maintain their new found fame, or for others, their questionable status, on next year’s publication.
