Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has unseated Oprah Winfrey as the most powerful celebrity of 2009 but the talk show queen is still raking in big money with an earning of USD 275 million dollars a year.
The Forbes list of most powerful celebrities have five men and women in the top ten but the women take the top four positions in the order of Jolie, Winfrey, Madonna and Beyonce Knowles with Jennifer Aniston at number eight.
Despite the sex scandal that exploded at the end of the year, golf champion Tiger Woods led the men at the number five position followed by singer Bruce Springsteen and Hollywood director Steven Spielberg.
Jolie's partner Brad Pitt came in ninth after his ex-wife Aniston and the tenth spot went to American basketball star Kobe Bryan whose popularity soared after the US victory at the Beijing Olympics.
A mix of money and fame have plummeted the Mr and Mrs Smith actress to the number one position, according to the Forbes analysis, which finds that last year Jolie raked in the moolah from movies like Kung Fu Panda and Wanted while remaining a media favorite because of her relationship with Pitt and her philanthropic work.
Oprah has been consistently losing her viewership but this hasn't impacted her earnings and next year the celebrity will roll out the Oprah Winfrey Network in partnership with Discovery Communications.
The Queen of Pop Madonna grabbed the number three spot for pulling off top grossing international tour of 2008 that raked in USD 280 million and grabbing headlines for adopting another Malawian baby as well as for the end of her marriage to British filmmaker Guy Ritchie.
Forbes noted that, last year, Woods did not make money from playing golf due to a leg injury but instead found a way to rope in the cash from designing golf courses, which are underway in North Carolina and Dubai while another plan was announced for Mexico.
Woods also got a hefty chunk of earnings from endorsements, his biggest sponsor Nike, with golf sales of USD 725 million last year. Following revelations about the series of extra-marital flings, Pepsi Co dropped Woods but Nike has confirmed it will stick with the golfer.
US President Barack Obama became the first head-of-state to enter the celebrity list at number 49 with earnings of USD 2 million from the sales of his two books Dream of My Father and The Audacity of Hope.
"The 44th president of the United States is the most famous person in the world," Forbes said.
"Obama could certainly earn tens of millions of dollars a year giving speeches full time," the magazine added. The celebs who fell from the Forbes top 100 list due to a drop in earnings and visibility included singer Justin Timberlake (former number 12), actor Johnny Depp (former number six) supermodel and television personality, Tyra Banks (former number 67) and popstar Jennifer Lopez (former number 54).
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