Americas Most Powerful Celebrities
The rich and famous have had a great year--and a terrible one. Movie attendance dropped 8% last year as fans retreated to their home theaters, complaining of, among other things, high ticket prices. Can-do-no-wrong actors such as Nicole Kidman delivered the year's biggest turkeys (
Bewitched, anyone?). As a result, box office receipts fell 5% to $8.9 billion. Breakups, babies and betrayals monopolized the headlines nearly eclipsing the careers of actors such as Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie. But generating headlines isn't enough to solidify your standing in Hollywood. A fat paycheck won't do it, either. Only a combination of earnings and sizzle will land a celebrity a coveted spot on our Celebrity 100 list of the most powerful names in the business.
Tom Cruise Pay$67 million Power Rank 1 
Cruise returns to the No. 1 position on the Forbes Power 100, a post he held five years ago, thanks to a combination of his awesome earnings from "War of the Worlds" and the media onslaught following his pairing with actress Katie Holmes. He also generated tons of ink with his couch-jumping antics on "Oprah," his outspoken criticism of the pharmaceutical industry and, of course, his new baby, Suri. Love him or hate him, Cruise is Hollywood's most bankable actor.
Rolling Stones Pay $90 million Power Rank 2 
Last year's A Bigger Bang tour grossed $162 million by the end of 2005, besting the band's prior record of $120 million grossed from 1994's Voodoo Lounge tour. In February, the band appeared in Rio before an estimated 1.5 million fans, its largest audience ever. Three months later the Stones performed for the first time in China, where government officials banned the group from playing provocative classics like "Brown Sugar" and "Beast of Burden." But the biggest shocker came in May when guitarist Keith Richards fell from a tree while on vacation in Fiji, prompting emergency brain surgery. But the show will go on: new tour dates for the Stones' Bigger Bang tour already have been announced.
Oprah Winfrey Pay $225 million Power Rank 3 
America's richest African-American continues to expand her multimedia empire. Her production of Broadway's "The Color Purple" garnered 11 Tony nominations, including Best Musical. (It went on to win one, for Best Musical Actress.) She also is developing a syndicated talk show for popular Food Network star Rachael Ray, in addition to a weekly radio program, "Oprah & Friends," for digital satellite broadcaster XM. And listen closely for Oprah's voice as Gussy, the sage mother goose, in the animated version of "Charlotte's Web," slated for release this Christmas. Winfrey suffered rare criticism last year when her Book Club pick, "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey, was revealed to have been fabricated. (She castigated the discredited author on her program later that month.)
U2 Pay $110 million Power Rank 4 
The Irish rockers made more money in 2005 than any other musicians on the planet. Their album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. and U.K. charts last year and earned five Grammys, including one for Album of the Year. But U2's prominent position on the Celebrity 100 list is owed largely to the media exposure of front man Bono, who has become an influential activist on behalf of AIDS awareness and debt relief in Africa. He has enjoyed audiences with such world leaders as George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and the late Pope John Paul II, as well as a slew of other global leaders, and has pressed them to increase aid to Africa. Last year Bono, who is rarely photographed without his trademark sunglasses, was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tiger Woods Pay $90 million Power Rank 5 
Woods, still young at 30, has earned $58 million in career tournament winnings, $12 million more than his closest competitor. Add to that lucrative deals with blue chips like Nike, Accenture, General Motors and American Express, and it's no wonder golf's crown prince can afford playthings like his recent purchase of 155-foot yachts and a ten-acre oceanfront estate on Florida's exclusive Jupiter Island. He's not hording his fortune, either. The just opened, $25 million Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim, Calif., features a state-of-the-art educational center and golf practice area for kids.
Steven Spielberg Pay $332 million Power Rank 6 
The highest earner on this year's Celebrity 100 list made the bulk of his income from the sale of DreamWorks SKG's live-action business to Paramount. Add to that back-end profits from "War of the Worlds," the fourth-highest-grossing film last year, with box office receipts of nearly $600 million. Though "Munich" won critical praise, moviegoers generally shunned the controversial flick inspired by the 1972 massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes. That disappointment may help explain why Spielberg is returning to crowd-pleasers, working up sequels to cinematic favorites "Indiana Jones" and "Jurassic Park."
Howard Stern Pay $302 million Power Rank 7 
An incredibly lucrative year for the shock jock, thanks to his rich contract with Sirius Satellite Radio, which pays him $100 million annually. (Stern pays all the production costs for his show.) The company also awarded him a one-time $225 million bonus in Sirius stock for meeting subscription benchmarks. That prompted a breach-of-contract lawsuit from CBS Radio, his old employer, which claimed that Stern used CBS airtime to plug Sirius. Stern settled the case in May for an undisclosed sum. The outsized compensation package prompted massive first-quarter losses for Sirius, which has seen its stock tumble 32% to $4.41 since the new year.
50 Cent Pay $41 million Power Rank 8 
Sales of his 2003 debut album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," and last year's follow-up, "The Massacre," have sold a combined 20 million copies worldwide. But 50 Cent--Fiddy to fans--also lords over G-Unit, a vast multimedia empire that includes apparel, videogames, ringtones, even a stake in Glaceau Vitamin Water, which named its low-cal grape flavor Formula 50 after the former drug dealer. Despite the only modest performance of the "Get Rich" film last year, 50 is slated to appear in at least two more films, including the soon-to-be-released Iraq war flick "Home of the Brave." Stay tuned for his next album before year's end.
Cast of The Sopranos Pay $52 million Power Rank 9 
Television's most dysfunctional crime-family cast returned after a lengthy hiatus for its final season. James Gandolfini, who reportedly commands $1 million per episode, is moving on to big-screen projects, including the murder mystery "Lonely Hearts" with John Travolta and the film adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men." Last year Michael Imperioli appeared in several episodes of "Law & Order," while Edie Falco co-starred in the film "Freedomland." Lorraine Bracco was a guest judge on Bravo's "Top Chef" season finale.
Dan Brown Pay $88 million Power Rank 10 
The critically lambasted film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" grossed $77 million domestically on its opening weekend, the second-best opening ever for an adult-oriented film. (It's well on its way to surpassing "The Passion of the Christ" in worldwide box office receipts.) Brown, whose novel has to date sold 61 million copies worldwide, recently won a plagiarism lawsuit brought against him in England. "The Da Vinci Code" supposes a union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and speculates on the fate of their offspring. According to Hollywood scuttlebutt, Sony is planning to bring Brown's earlier work, "Angels & Demons," to the big screen.