Julia highest-paid actress
2005-12-01 09:42
Los Angeles - Oscar winners Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman are Hollywood's two highest-paid actresses, commanding $20m (about R130m) and $17m (about R110m) per film respectively, according to a list published on Wednesday.
Even though Pretty Woman siren Roberts, 38, is making fewer movies and spending more time with her young twins, she remains Hollywood's most powerful female star in salary terms, The Hollywood Reporter said.
"She's still perceived as the highest-paid actress in Hollywood," the industry publication said of the holder of first place on its list of the 10 best-paid movie actresses.
Kidman, also 38, was in second place, mustering $16m to $17m per picture since she won the best actress Oscar for her role as Virginia Wolfe in 2003's The Hours.
"This Oscar winner has built her reputation on taking risky roles and accepting smaller fees just for the chance to continue challenging herself - but that doesn't mean she can't command the big bucks when she wants to," the Reporter said.
Top paid actresses in Hollywood
Kidman has risen to the top of Hollywood's most powerful women since she won the Oscar, emerging from the shadow of ex-husband Tom Cruise who she married when she was an aspiring Australian starlet.
She reportedly earned $17.5m for her role in this year's thriller The Interpreter, and $16m for next year's sci-fi release The Visiting. Her next big role is as photographer Diane Arbus in Fur.
Flaxen-haired Reese Witherspoon, who won world fame for her role in Legally Blonde, is in third place, commanding $15m per picture, according to the Reporter.
"With a reputation for being a hard-working perfectionist and a tough producer, Witherspoon has cemented her place in Hollywood's elite," the publication said.
Witherspoon is currently on US screens playing June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, which is tipped as a possible Oscar nominee.
Next on the list is former child actress and Charlie's Angels star Drew Barrymore who expects $15m per film.
In fifth position is Oscar winner, Renee Zellweger, 36, star of such films as Cold Mountain, Chicago and Bridget Jones' Diary who commands $10m to $15m per film, although she did get paid a total of $21m for the 2005 box office flop Cinderella Man.
Brangelina movie highest-grossing
Angelina Jolie was sixth, earning $10m to $15m for roles in such films as the spy thriller Mr and Mrs Smith, co-starring her reputed paramour Brad Pitt.
The picture earned $185m at the box office, making it the highest-grossing film this year featuring a female lead. Jolie is currently filming The Good Shepherd for Robert De Niro.
Seventh on the list of female Hollywood powerhouses was Charlie's Angels and Shrek star Cameron Diaz, who is paid $10m to $15m per film, followed by Jodie Foster who can demand $10m to $12m.
South African Charlize Theron, 30, earns $10m a film following her win of an Oscar for her role in 2003's Monster, scoring her ninth place on the list.
Rounding off the list is former Friends star and Brad Pitt's ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, 36 who is paid around $9m per feature film.
She is currently on screens in Derailed co-starring Clive Owen and will soon be seen in Rumor Has It, opposite Kevin Costner and the romantic comedy The Break Up with Vince Vaughn.
"While her bankability in leading roles has yet to be proved - and that is an unmistakably large hurdle to overcome - Aniston is toplining films with some of the industry's biggest stars," the Reporter said.