Oprah Winfrey is World’s Most Powerful Celebrity

Oprah Winfrey has topped the Forbes Celebrity 100, a power ranking based on both earnings and fame. Forbes says Winfrey earned $275 million before taxes in the past 12 months, and she remains one of the most famous faces in the world.

So how is the Celebrity 100 determined?

The Celebrity 100 measures power, which boils down to two components: money and fame. Earnings estimates are for June 2007 – June 2008. We included income from endorsements, movies or other ventures only if the celebrity has been paid, applying the same rules to entertainment-related ventures. Management, agent and attorney’s fees have not been deducted. Figures were rounded off where appropriate. Sources include Billboard, Pollstar, Adams Media Research, Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BookScan. How do we “calculate” fame? From Web hits on Google Blog Search, TV/Radio mentions on LexisNexis, overall press mentions on Factiva and the number of times a celebrity’s image appeared on the cover of 55 consumer magazines.

The World’s top 5 Most Powerful Celebrities are…
1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Tiger Woods
3. Angelina Jolie
4. Beyonce Knowles
5. David Beckham

View the complete list and find more famous celebrities. Play with the list to see some cool results.
- Sort by Pay – J K Rowling tops.
- Sort by Press Rank – Tiger Woods tops.
- Sort by Web rank – Angelina Jolie tops.