New York – In Forbes’ unique ranking, which quantifies celebrity by combining earning power and star power – including press clippings, television and radio appearances, magazine cover stories and web hits – Cruise vaulted into the top spot in the Celebrity 100 from 20th place in 2000.
Although he rated 13th overall in wealth, with earnings last year of $43.2 million, Cruise featured in a chart-topping 11 magazine cover stories. His messy public breakup with wife Nicole Kidman assured he had lots of newspaper ink.
According to the list in the March 19 edition of Forbes, last year’s No. 1, Julia Roberts, dropped to 16th, with earnings of $18.9 million, even though she was nominated for a best actress Academy Award for Erin Brockovich.
Second on this year’s Celebrity 100 list was golfer Tiger Woods, who earned $53 million last year, but had only five magazine covers. He was followed by the Beatles, who last recorded three decades ago, but whose album of hits, 1, topped the pop charts in 24 countries last month. The Fab Four had an incredible 1.43 million mentions on websites last year.
”Not only did Cruise earn much more money in 2000 than in 1999 ($27 million), but his media exposure increased dramatically,” Forbes said. In 2000, Cruise racked up 11 cover stories and 139 000 Web hits as opposed to one cover story and about 27 000 web hits in 1999.
Rounding out the Top 10 on the list that factors in wealth, media attention and other ”metrics of fame”, were Britney Spears in fourth place, followed by Bruce Willis, Michael Jordan, Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, Oprah Winfrey and Mel Gibson.
Reuters