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Oprah Named Highest Paid Celebrity

Forbes reveals rich list

Oprah Named Highest Paid Celebrity
27 August 2012

The end of her hugely successful talk show has not proved an obstacle to chat show queen Oprah Winfrey's earning power, as she was the named the highest paid celebrity for the fourth year in a row by Forbes.com.

Winfrey's OWN network has not found huge success since launching at the start of 2011 but its income, together with her other business interests, has still netted her an estimated $165m between May 2011 and May 2012.

She tops a list that includes five movie executives, showing that Hollywood is still the place to earn megabucks. In addition, experience clearly pays, as the youngest in the top 10 is Tyler Perry, at 42. Taylor Swift, named the highest-paid celebrity under 30 last month, is well off the pace with earnings of only $57m. We don't know how she'll scrape by.

Dr Dre's appearance is almost certainly a one-off, due in main to the sale of part of his Beats headphones company; or maybe in previous years they just Forgot About Dre, who knows.

The top 10 are:

1. Oprah Winfrey (TV) - $165m

2. Michael Bay (movie director) - $160m

3. Steven Spielberg (move director) - $130m

4. Jerry Bruckheimer (TV and film producer) - $115m

5. Dr Dre (music & technology) - $110m

6. Tyler Perry (actor & producer) - $105m

7. Howard Stern (radio & TV) - $95m

8. James Patterson (author) - $94m

9. George Lucas (movie producer) - $90m

10. Simon Cowell (music & TV) - $90m

(Image: Rex Features)