Forbes have release their annual list of the 10 top-earning men in Prime-Time television and as predicted they make way more money than their female counterparts do. Nearly double the $162 million combined total the women made during the same period of June 2009-June 2010.
10. Chris Meloni, Estimated earnings: $9.5 million
Though ratings for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit took a hit when it was bumped up an hour to make room for Jay Leno’s short-lived 10 p.m. talk show last season, the series remains the franchise’s strongest effort. Now that the Law & Order mother ship has concluded its lengthy run, the New York-based actor and his co-star, Mariska Hargitay, become the unofficial faces of the larger franchise.
9. Hugh Laurie, Estimated earnings: $10 million
As cranky Dr. House in Fox’s long-running medical drama, Laurie continues to lure ratings and fans. The only place he seems to fall short: the Emmys, where the 51-year-old Brit is a frequent nominee but never a winner. Over on the big screen, he has joined the long-gestating indie Oranges opposite Leighton Meester and Catherine Keener.
8. Patrick Dempsey, Estimated earnings: $11 million
As the best-paid man on set, Dempsey continues to send viewers swooning as Dr. McDreamy on ABC’s long-running medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. When he isn’t donning scrubs at Seattle Grace, the face of Avon can be found revving up his race cars or beefing up his film résumé. Up next, a role in the latest installment of Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise.
7. Laurence Fishburne, Estimated earnings: $12 million
Though ratings have taken a tumble since he stepped in to replace William Petersen, Fishburne has something else to boast about: one of the richest TV deals around. Over on the big screen, the Academy Award nominated actor recently turned up in the Robert Rodriguez alien flick Predators. Up next: He’ll appear in Steve Soderbergh’s star-studded sci-fi thriller Contagion, shooting this fall. Off screen, it’s Fishburne’s daughter, a budding adult film star, who has gained the bulk of the headlines.
6. Kiefer Sutherland, Estimated earnings: $20 million
After eight highly rated seasons, Sutherland’s star vehicle ended its run in May. Though details are sparse, a movie version of the long-running 24 has been announced. What the show’s executive producer Howard Gordon has made public: his plan for Sutherland to give big-screen action stars Bruce Willis (Die Hard) and Harrison Ford (The Fugitive) a run for their money. In the meantime, Sutherland–or rather, Sutherland’s voice–graced the silver screen this past spring as raspy alpha dog Bosco in the animated flick Marmaduke.
5. Charlie Sheen, Estimated earnings: $30 million
For its fifth consecutive year, Sheen’s long-running CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men rounded out the television season as the No. 1 comedy in total viewers. After publicly flirting with the idea of departing the hit show, he negotiated the genre’s richest contract, and is back to donning bowling shirts as eternal bachelor Charlie Harper. Off screen, domestic troubles with his real-estate-investor wife, Brooke Mueller, have kept Sheen in the courtroom and the tabloids.
4. Steve Carell, Estimated earnings: $34 million
As The Office’s awkwardly endearing boss Michael Scott, Carell lures viewers and critical affection for a network in need of both. He generated headlines this spring when he announced this coming season would be his last. Guessing who will replace him has become a favorite parlor game among TV fans in recent months. Over on the big screen, the former Daily Show correspondent starred opposite Paul Rudd in Dinner for Schmucks and lent his voice to the part of protagonist Gru in the animated flick Despicable Me.
3. Donald Trump, Estimated earnings: $50 million
The Apprentice once again helped keep The Donald relevant while raking in extra cash for the billionaire. Trump, who landed at No. 153 on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $2.4 billion, continues to expand his brand, promoting his golf courses through the Golf Channel and producing beauty pageants. The real estate mogul also reaps millions from his books and speaking engagements. The Trump stamp can be found on products ranging from alcohol to neckties and high-end mattresses.
2. Ryan Seacrest, Estimated earnings: $51 million
He hosts American Idol, the American Top 40 radio countdown, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, E! News and ABC’s New Year’s Eve special. In addition to lucrative deals with Clear Channel Radio ($15 million a year), Idol parent CKX ($15 million) and the Comcast Entertainment Group ($15 million), Seacrest also develops and produces TV shows, including E’s Keeping up with the Kardashians and ABC’s Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. The Atlanta native also shills for Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Microsoft’s Bing, and is in the initial stages of launching a new cable network with talent agency CAA and entertainment giant AEG.
1. Simon Cowell, Estimated earnings: $80 million
Cowell made much of his bounty from American Idol, the top-rated series he chose to walk away from this past spring. (Come January, new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez will attempt to fill his shoes.) Also padding his wallet: fees from the Got Talent and X Factor franchises, along with profits from his lucrative record label. In 2011 the Brit who TV fans love to loathe will add another potential cash machine, when his latest singing competition show, The X Factor (finally) crosses the pond.
There’s even more drama for Montana Fishburne, the 19-year-old daughter of ‘CSI’ and ‘The Matrix’ star Laurence Fishburne.
According to TMZ, she was arrested last February after allegedly beating her boyfriend’s ex. The victim claims to have sustained “significant injuries” during the rumble.
The LA City Attorney’s Office reportedly charged Fishburne with battery, and will be adding charges of false imprisonment and assault with a deadly weapon.
The news comes after reports surfaced last week (via E! Online) that Montana was arrested in 2009 for alleged prostitution. Following the incident, she narrowly missed jail time by taking a work program and two years probation.
Fishburne pleaded no contest to criminal trespass in Hollywood, and the court dropped charges of “solicitation and loitering in a public area for the purpose of prostitution,” E! writes.
Montana is set to star in a porn video for Vivid Entertainment, NYDailyNews.com reports. Vivid, which also distributed Kim Kardashian and Kendra Wilkinson‘s sex tapes, will release the video on August 18.
In a Vivid Entertainment press release, Montana, who is also known as “Chippy D,” revealed that she was inspired by Kim Kardashian’s rise to fame after the release of her sex tape.
Last week, she spoke to PEOPLE about the upcoming video and the effect it may have on her father. “I hope it’s not hurting him. It wasn’t done to hurt him,” she said. “But I think it will take time and talking through the issues. Eventually, I hope he will be proud of me.”
“[My dad] is very upset,” Montana told TMZ earlier.
Montana Fishburne, the 19-year-old daughter of ‘Matrix’ and ‘CSI’ star Laurence Fishburne, has angered her father with her announcement that she’ll soon release a porn film.
“[My dad] is very upset. I heard that he’s mad at me, but I haven’t spoken to him yet. I feel pretty confident that I can work things out with him. I think he wants to support me in everything I do, and though he sees this now as a negative, I believe in time he will view it as a positive.”
Somehow I doubt that.
Montana, who was inspired by Kim Kardashian‘s rise to fame after the release of her sex tape, says she spoke weekly with her father until the porn news leaked. But she never clued him in to her proposed path to stardom.
“Montana tells us she plans to meet with her father soon to hash everything out,” TMZ reports.
“I’ve watched how successful Kim Kardashian became and I think a lot of it was due to the release of her sex tape,” Montana said in a statement through Vivid Entertainment. “I’m hoping the same magic will work for me. I’m impatient about getting well-known and having more opportunities and this seemed like a great way to get started on it.”
Of Montana, Vivid co-founder/chairman Steven Hirsch said, “[She] made up her mind to make this DVD before we met her. She grew up in the entertainment business and was well aware of our company. In looking at the careers of many current leading female personalities, she saw a path to success and hopes to follow it.”
In a YouTube interview, Montana and co-star Brian Pumper discuss the video. “The scene was fun. It was sexy,” Pumper says in the clip. “She performed well.”
source: Montana Fishburne — My Dad’s ‘Very Hurt’ Over Porn [TMZ]
Laurence Fishbourne’s 19-year old daughter Montana is hoping to follow in her famous Dad’s footsteps and make it big in Hollywood.
However, instead of using her father’s connections and take a few acting classes, Montana has decided to break into stardom the “easy” way – by getting down and dirty in a hardcore sex tape.
Why not… it worked for Kim Kardashian!
TMZ reports that Montana is starring in a porn flick for Vivid Entertainment – the same company who released Kendra Wilkinson’s sex tape earlier this year.
Her partner? Brian Pumper who has been involved with the porn film industry since 2001. He won a number of porn awards for acting in such flicks! He has also directed some adult flicks in his career. Many people describe him the Freak due to his mean and hurtful behavior. The x rated star is notorious for his twisted obsession with women.
According to the CarltonJordan.com reports, their camera caught porn star Brian Pumper and Laurence Fishburne’s daughter, 19-year-old Montana Fishburne on a date at Subway in Los Angeles.
If you’re excited to watch Montana’s sex tape, you’ve got Kim Kardshian to thank. Morpheus’ daughter explains, “I’ve watched how successful Kim Kardashian became and I think a lot of it was due to the release of her sex tape.”
However unlike Kim K, “Montana is not arguing that her tape was stolen or obtained illegally.”
10. Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling
You didn’t think we’d write a list of our favorite movie couples without mentioning these two, did you? Tender, passionate, and deeply romantic, McAdams and Gosling in “The Notebook†simultaneously break our hearts and give us reason to believe in love. We’d be thrilled to see them together again on-screen and in real life.
9. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
Sadly, we know this is a coupling we won’t ever get to see again, but since this is a fantasy list after all, we couldn’t pass up the chance to gush about these two together. Watching Heath and Jake roll around in the hay in “Brokeback Mountain†proved to us that guy-on-guy action? So effing hot.
8. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon
They weren’t a romantic couple, but in “Thelma and Louise,†the mother of all chick flicks, Davis and Sarandon reignited Girl Power and proved that sometimes the deepest love is platonic in nature.
7. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes
On their own — or with other people — neither of these two thespians are the most likable on our list, but together, as they were in the 1996 remake of “Romeo and Juliet,†they’re totally captivating. Gone are all signs of the pretensiousness we’ve come to expect from Danes in her more recent movies, and DiCaprio’s over-acting is diluted to tolerable measure with his co-star’s sweet subtlety.
6. Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman
Sure, they played a couple in the middle of a divorce and nasty custody battle in the 1979 film, “Kramer vs. Kramer,†but the tenderness between them — not to mention the amazing Academy Award-winning acting — is something we need more of today. Plus, they’ve both had such impressive careers in the nearly 30 years since, we think there’s a great chance to catch lightning in a jar again if these two were to ever reunite on-screen.
5. Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray
Le sigh! Has there been a more bittersweet love story in recent cinematic history than between these two in “Lost in Translation� While we love Bill Murray is nearly anything in which he appears, Scarlett Johansson’s luster just isn’t as shiny without him by her side. Together, they have a chemistry that is more kindred spirit than hot passion, a connection we yearn to see more of in this day of gratuitous sex overload.
4. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
So iconic as a couple, they don’t even need last names, but as Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the 2005 movie of the same name, the sexiest couple alive proved to viewers exactly why they belong together. The chemistry between them is palpable, and watching them together, most of us don’t know whom to envy more — her for getting to kiss him, or him for kissing her.
3. Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne
They steamed things up together in the 1993 Tina Turner biography, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?â€, earning Bassett an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, and Fishburne his first Oscar nomination. Fishburne has stated about Bassett: “An electrifying thing happens when the two of us work together. I haven’t experienced it with anyone else.†We experience it, too, Laurence. And we want more.
2. Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp
Surely there’s enough water under the bridge for these two, who broke their engagement in the early ’90s, to reunite on the big screen again. They were perfectly sweet and enchanting together in the 1990 movie “Edward Scissorhands†and the sight of those big, soulful eyes they both share is enough to elicit a deep sigh from even the most stoic.
1. Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey
Forget Kate and Leo; we want to see Kate and Jim together again. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind†is one of the few movies we’ve seen Jim Carrey in that hasn’t made us want to claw our eyes out. In fact, Carrey was downright charming, something we’re pretty sure he needs Winslet to pull off. So, what are they waiting for?
