Angelina takes top-earning Hollywood actress crown

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 01:10

ANGELINA Jolie is Hollywood's top-earning actress, banking $27 million (£16m) in the past year to beat her partner Brad Pitt's ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, who raked in $25 million, a Forbes.com study showed yesterday.

Most of Jolie's income came from her share of the profits from her action film Wanted, but she was also paid a large upfront sum for her role in Salt, the study said. Jolie and Pitt have six children.

Aniston, who was married to Pitt before he became involved with Jolie, earned most of her millions from the romantic comedy Marley and Me and her upcoming film The Baster.

"Aniston also still earns money from (reruns of TV series] Friends and she gets a nice paycheck shilling for Glaceau's SmartWater," Forbes.com said.

Meryl Streep came in at number three with $24 million, most of which came from her role in Mamma Mia, while Sarah Jessica Parker was ranked fourth with $23 million in earnings following the movie version of TV series Sex and the City.

Cameron Diaz rounds out the top five, banking $20 million between June 2008 and June 2009.

Forbes.com said it spoke to agents, managers, producers and lawyers to work out what actresses were paid upfront for movies they are currently shooting and what pay they might have earned after a movie was released. Money earned from perfume or clothing lines was also taken into account.

"As is still typical for Hollywood, our actresses earned significantly less than their male counterparts," Forbes.com said.