Emma Watson named highest-paid actress

HARRY Potter star Emma Watson has been named Hollywood’s highest paid female star.
The 19-year-old was ranked above the likes of Cameron Diaz, Sarah Jessica Parker and Angelina Jolie in Vanity Fair magazine’s list of Hollywood’s top 40 earners.
Watson, who is also the youngest on the list, was ranked at number 14 overall. Watson’s 2009 earnings are recorded at $30 million, having bagged $15 million each for her two most recent outings as Harry Potter’s Hermione. Watson’s actual earnings are likely to be millions of dollars higher, however, as the list does not include earnings from other sources and the actress has secured a lucrative advertising deal with the Burberry fashion label.
Vanity Fair calculated the stars’ earning power by interviewing agents, lawyers, studio executives, and occasionally the stars themselves, about film-related income (money made in television was excluded).
Watson’s Harry Potter co-star, Daniel Radcliffe, outdid her in the overall list to make it to number six, with an estimated $41 million. Radcliffe’s total earnings are likely to be significantly higher. Other sources of income include a promotional deal, which will see him promote Orlando’s new Hogwarts theme park in a television advert likely to be seen by more than 100 million people when it is screened in the US during Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Radcliffe is the highest paid actor on Vanity Fair’s list, with the top five spots all occupied by directors. Micheal Bay, the director of the latest Transformers film, Revenge of the Fallen, was named the highest paid star in Hollywood, pulling in an estimated $125 million last year. –Timesonline