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Oprah Winfrey Named Highest-Paid Celebrityżbut #2 Is a Surprise

4:10 AM EDT, August 28, 2012

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Oprah Winfrey may have retired her namesake talk show for good in 2011, but she's still rollin' in the dough as the titular head of her own TV network.

The daytime legend has topped Forbes' list of the highest-paid celebrities for the fourth year in a row with $165 million earned between May 2011 and May 2012.

The magazine listed Michael Bay in second place with $160 million during the same period, largely on the box office strength of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which grossed more than $1.1 billion worldwide and for which he had major back-end points.

After his twofer of War Horse and Tintin, Steven Spielberg took the third spot with $130 million in revenue—a large portion of which comes from residuals from his movies as well as various DreamWorks-produced TV shows (SmashTerra Nova anyone?).

Mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer proved his Tinseltown worth netting $115 million, courtesy of more than $1 billion in ticket sales from last year's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. We imagine he'll likely tally even better next year with his remake of The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the titular hero.

Rounding out the top five moneymakers was rap mogul Dr. Dre, who raked in $110 million, much of that from his Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, which generated some controversy at the London Olympics a few weeks back.

 

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Michael Bay
3. Steven Spielberg
4. Jerry Bruckheimer
5. Dr. Dre
6. Tyler Perry
7. Howard Stern
8. James Patterson
9. George Lucas
10. Simon Cowell
11. Glenn Beck
12. Elton John
13. Tom Cruise
14. Dick Wolf
15. Rush Limbaugh
16. Manny Pacquiao
17. Dr. Phil
18. Donald Trump
19. Ryan Seacrest
20. Britney Spears
21. Tiger Woods