Supermodel Linda Evangelista
once famously proclaimed she wouldn't get out of bed for less than $US10,000 a
day, but that's small change to Nicole Kidman.
The Australian beauty, who is used to gracing the pages of glossy magazines,
has just made it into the latest edition of Guinness World Records for her
staggering earning power.
The Oscar-winning beauty holds the record for the most money paid per minute
to an actor after she earned a reported $US3.71 million ($A5 million) for a
four-minute commercial for Chanel No 5 perfume.
In case you're wondering, Linda, that's $US927,500 a minute ($A1.25 million)
or $US15,460 a second ($A20,833).
In the songstress earning stakes, Veteran pop singer Madonna supplants
younger rival Britney Spears, taking the title of highest annual earnings by a
female singer after she took home an estimated $US50 million ($A66.9 million) in
2004.
Despite the relentless media coverage of her personal life, Spears is also
unseated by another 40-something as the world's most searched-for person and
most searched-for news item on the internet.
She loses those top spots to pop diva Janet Jackson who also gets credit for
the largest ever fine imposed on a broadcaster after one of her breasts was
exposed live on air.
The most wanted man on internet search engine Google last year was Hollywood
heart-throb Brad Pitt, according to the star-studded 2007 version of the
Guinness World Records book which goes on sale on Friday.
In the world of publishing, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton holds the title
for fastest-selling non-fiction book after her memoirs sold 200,000 copies on
day one.
Not to be outdone, her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, also
clinches a place for the largest advance for a work of non-fiction.
US chat show host Oprah Winfrey is the highest paid person on television,
Cher's 2005 Farewell Tour was the highest grossing music tour by a female artist
and Irish rock band U2 were the biggest earning act in the world last year.
As for the downsides of stardom, modern celebrities have yet to match Errol
Flynn's real-life courtroom performances which saw him jailed a record four
times.
And if you've ever wondered who are the biggest people strutting Hollywood's
sidewalks, Clint Eastwood, Vince Vaughn and British horror actor Christopher Lee
are its tallest leading men at 6 foot 4 inches (1.94 metres).
At 6 foot (1.82 metres), Hollywood's tallest leading women are Alien star
Sigourney Weaver, Brigitte Neilsen and Oscar-winner Geena Davis, who also
starred in the world's biggest ever box-office flop, Cutthroat
Island.
