Forbes Names Mel Gibson Most Powerful Celebrity
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mel Gibson, whose controversial film “The Passion of the Christ” paid off big at the box office, is the year’s most powerful celebrity, according to Forbes magazine’s Celebrity 100 power rankings.
Gibson, who directed, produced and co-wrote the violent movie about the last hours of Jesus, earned $210 million and tremendous media buzz from the project, according to Forbes magazine, which factors in media attention to compare the biggest money-makers from various fields of entertainment.
Magazine covers, press clippings, TV and radio coverage and Internet hits are all factored into the rankings formula. Money earned in the last 12 months was used to identify the finalists in each category.
Golf star Tiger Woods, the leading money-maker among athletes with $80 million, was second on the list, followed by talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who matched Gibson in earnings.
Actor Tom Cruise ($45 million) was fourth, followed by venerable rock group Rolling Stones ($51 million). “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling was sixth on the list, boosted by her earnings of $147 million.
“Very broadly, it’s a combination of money and fame,” said Peter Kafka, who wrote the Forbes story on the rankings in the issue on newsstands on Friday. “We divide the celebrity world into categories and we find the top earners in each category. The power list compares them.”
Actress Jennifer Aniston, who topped the rankings last year, slipped to 17th place on the 2004 list.
Casualties from the previous list included singer/actress Jennifer Lopez, who ranked fifth last year, and her former fiancee and movie bomb “Gigli” co-star Ben Affleck, rated seventh in 2003. Both failed to make the 2004 list.
Other power-list dropouts were Eminem and Dr. Dre, the performer and record producer who shared last year’s No. 2 spot, and former reality show darlings The Osbournes (12th).
Former President Bill Clinton ranked 51st this year with an income of $6.3 million that qualified him in the “speakers” category. Despite his relatively low income, Clinton ranked first of all 100 contenders in TV/radio attention, press clippings and Internet hits.
“There is intense interest in him still,” said Kafka.
Clinton will likely climb higher in the power rankings next year when earnings and media attention from his hotly anticipated memoir, to be published next week, is factored in.
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