Forbes' Releases List of Top 10 Most Overpaid Actors

Admit it, when you saw that title, this is the first person you thought of.

We all have our share of hated actors/actresses we all wish weren't getting rich off of irritating us in movies. Martin Lawrence, for example, is my personal choice for someone who has never been talented or funny.  In anything.  Ever.  But Forbes has now released a list of actors calculated to be paid too much for what little box office they draw.  Here's the list, all next to the amount of money their film's since 2006 have made for every dollar that they worked for:

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Heidi Montag To Fight Sharks With Her 3-D Boobs

How long will we have to tolerate Heidi Montag? The walking billboard for image consciousness will have some free time to devote to more surgical enhancement now that MTV has canceled The Hills, but unlike most things, she's not taking it lying down.

Montag will continue the wholly undistinguished tradition of bouncing from reality TV to the movies, one that began with that Colleen girl from Survivor co-starring in Rob Schneider's The Animal and covers all things Paris Hilton, although in Montag's case there will be a lot more bouncing. “I’m so excited The Hills is finally over and I can now become a full time motion picture actress,” Montag told People. “There is no better training [for an actor] than being in front of the cameras 24-7.” Well, she's right about that; just look at how good Larry King is in his movie cameos after all that time in front of cameras. (Sarcasm, one of the many features we offer free of charge.) But it's not just acting that has caught Montag's eye, one of the few original parts she has left; Mrs. Spencer Pratt has written a script. Brace yourself, Charlie Kaufman.

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Cameron's Bold Fresh Tirade Against Glenn Beck

James Cameron took every opportunity to say exactly how he felt about Fox News host Glenn Beck at a recent press conference promoting the DVD and Blu-ray release of Avatar.

There are, as you might expect, very few points of political agreement between Beck and the King of the World, but Cameron turned vicious, in part because Beck lashed out at Cameron and his 2007 documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus. At the time, Beck, working for CNN, said, "Many people believe James Cameron officially has tossed his hat in the ring today and is officially running for anti-Christ." "Glenn Beck is a fucking asshole. I've met him," Cameron told reporters. "I think, you know what, he may or may not be an asshole, but he certainly is dangerous, and I'd love to have a dialogue with him."

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Lindsay Lohan Suing E-Trade Over Super Bowl Ad

I guess if nobody will pay you to work, you might as well try to make money the old fashioned way: Take 'em to court. Lindsay Lohan has filed an outrageous suit in the amount of $100 million against E-Trade for using her likeness without permission in its Super Bowl ad.

You remember the ad, right? The one where the new E-Trade baby is online chatting with his "girlfriend," who wonders why he didn't call the previous night. He explains that he was trading and she doesn't believe him, asking at one point if "that milkaholic Lindsay" had come over to his place. That - a reference to a milk addict named Lindsay - is somehow worth $100 million in Lohan's gin-soaked mind. Here's the breakdown: $50 million in exemplary damages, $50 million in compensatory damages, a demand that E-Trade stop running the offending ad, all because the company improperly invoked Lohan's "likeness, name, characterization, and personality," thus violating her right of privacy.

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Michael Bay: 2009's Top Showbiz Earner...For Now

Just in case you didn't envy/hate celebrities enough already, here's the the top 40 earners of 2009. The list comes from Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue, and it's a pretty thorough accounting of how these actors, directors, and executives made their money.

For example, you'd think Tyler Perry would have made more than $32.5 million based on everything he's involved with. Here's a partial breakdown: "$19 million: Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (back end for writing, directing, producing, and starring, based on domestic gross of $90 million — Perry’s films are not yet distributed internationally — and share of DVD)." Wow, that's in-depth. And he has four projects on his 2009 balance sheet, including one for which he was paid $2.5 million to executive produce a film that won't bear his name. Fascinating stuff. Conversely, you'd think Owen Wilson would be making less than $19 million at this point, but he roped Universal into giving him $15 million for Little Fockers. That seems...extreme. Between that salary and Ben Stiller, the movie already costs $35 million. Oh, and add another $20 million for De Niro. Uh-huh. That's a bloated animal of a movie.

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