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HOLLYWOOD -- Move over Nicole, Angelina and Julia, Reese Witherspoon has been declared the highest-paid actress in town, with a per-movie asking price of between $15 and $20 million to back up the claim.
Those eagerly anticipated findings were officially released yesterday in The Hollywood Reporter's annual Women in Entertainment: Power 100 issue, although they were leaked a few days earlier to the entertainment media starved for something, anything, upbeat to report on.
But the bigger story is Nicole Kidman slipping a couple of notches to fourth place in the movie salary derby with a price tag in the $10 to $15 million range. That's pretty much in the same ballpark as what former title-holder Julia Roberts commands these days.
In order to get to those big league asking prices, winning an Oscar or two doesn't hurt, but the bottom line is still all about box-office clout.
Never mind the fact that the most recent of Reese's pieces, Rendition, has been withering in theatres, the 31-year-old can, for the most part, be counted on to bring in a loyal audience.
While Julia was off being a mommy, Reese juggled raising two children (and, until last year, anyway, staying married to Ryan Phillippe) along with building a successful movie career with hits like the Legally Blonde pictures, Sweet Home Alabama and her Oscar-crowning turn as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.
Fewer nickels for Nicole
Fellow Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman had also been reported collecting $15 to $20 million in the past, but it gets harder to make that asking price stick after stuff like The Invasion, Fur and Stepford Wives.
And, like Julia, Kidman turned 40 this year, putting her in that tricky age group for actresses who built a career on a foundation of ingenue roles.
Both are hoping to reignite the old box-office fire this month, with the releases of Kidman's The Golden Compass, a $180-million fantasy looking to be the next Harry Potter franchise and Roberts' buzzed-about Charlie Wilson's War.
Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie had to settle for second place in the Hollywood Reporter's rankings even though she, too, is usually in that $15 to $20 million range.
The culprit is Beowulf, for which she received a paltry $8 million.
Say it isn't so, Brangelina! Shiloh needs new shoes.
Her art will go on
The setting: A recent noisy lunch hour at that perpetual celebrity hotspot known as the Four Seasons Hotel restaurant in Beverly Hills.
Hey, isn't that celebrated music maven David Foster chowing down with celebrated Tuscan tenor Andrea Bocelli, whom Foster has produced in the past?
And, is Foster really saying uncomplimentary things about Celine Dion's soon-to-close Vegas show, the one that's been packing 'em into Caesars Palace since 2003?
C'mon David. We know that you and Celine have a long, rewarding history together in the recording studio and that for her recently-released Taking Chances CD she opted to take chances with a whole bunch of new producers, but that's no reason to be a hater.
Us Canadians gotta stick together.