Sandra Bullock Is Highest Paid Actress

Angelina Jolie is no longer Forbes’ most powerful celebrity and neither is she the highest paid actress for last year. Just recently, the magazine announced that Oprah Winfrey was back at number 1 as the most influential and successful celebrity, with Jolie slipping to the second position. Now, she’s been surpassed in Forbes’ top 10 of highest earning actress as well, with Sandra Bullock coming in on top.

The Oscar-winning star had a very rough year on a personal note, what with the cheating scandal, the divorce and the adoption of a baby boy she was supposed to raise with Jesse James. From a professional point of view, though, things couldn’t be better for Sandra, as she raked in $56 million dollars for her two very successful film she released last year, the romantic comedy “The Proposal” and the inspirational tale “The Blind Side.” This literally places her as the highest earning female star, way above Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston and other heavyweights.

“First her romantic comedy The Proposal grossed $320 million on an estimated budget of $40 million. That would be impressive enough, but then The Blind Side hit theaters five months later. Based on a true story about a white family that took in an African-American football prodigy, the film earned an amazing $310 million at the box office on an estimated budget of only $30 million. Bullock cut her usual fee to star in the movie and reaped a large share of the film’s profits in return. Between her earnings on The Proposal and The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock earned $56 million between June 2009 and June 2010, tops among Hollywood’s leading ladies. Add in a messy divorce that had her on the front of tabloids almost every week, the adoption of a baby that she will now raise on her own and her first Oscar, and Bullock had one hell of a year,” Forbes writes.

Reese Witherspoon comes in second place, even though she hasn’t been in a movie since 2008, Forbes notes. In 2009, she made $32 million thanks to pay in advance for two different projects, “Water for Elephants” and “How Do You Know,” and to her role as an Avon ambassador. Cameron Diaz also had a very busy year, and thus lands on the third position with $32 million (a tie with Witherspoon), while Jennifer Aniston comes in fourth with $27 million. Sarah Jessica Parker rounds up the top 5 with $25 million, which she made with SATC 2 and her very successful line of perfumes.

Julia Roberts remains a strong player with $20 million at number 6, while Angelina Jolie lands in at number 7 with $20 million, which is supposedly her paycheck for the spy thriller “Salt.” In 2009, Drew Barrymore also made $15 million, while Meryl Streep $13 million. The tenth position is also the most surprising of the lot, as it is occupied by none other than Kristen Stewart who plays Bella Swan in “The Twilight Saga.” With the “Twilight” movies and other projects, the young actress made $12 million this past year, Forbes says. 

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