Oprah top paid woman entertainer, Gaga catches up

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Watch out Oprah, there’s a  savvy pop star and an ambitious real housewife nipping at your  financial heels.
Oprah Winfrey remained the entertainment world’s top woman  earner, but Lady Gaga and Bethenny Frankel, one of the original  housewives in the “Real Housewives of New York,” are moving  quickly up the ranks of the rich, according to Forbes.com.
Winfrey held on to the top spot with $290 million in  earnings from May 2010 to May 2011 and an estimated net worth  of $2.7 billion.
But Winfrey’s daytime talk show, which she wrapped up in  May, was her chief money earner and her newly launched cable  network, OWN, has drawn paltry ratings since its January  launch.
“The network has a long way to go before advertisers start  paying the kind of rates Winfrey was charging for her  syndicated show,” said Forbes’ Dorothy Pomerantz, who compiled  the list by culling information from agents, managers, lawyers  and others in the know.
Lady Gaga was a distant second with $90 million in gross  earnings, followed by Frankel with $55 million. Frankel, who  launched her own diet and lifestyle brand, sold her Skinnygirl  Margarita cocktail mix for an estimated $100 million and has  been expanding her brand, which will soon include food,  supplements and a possible talk show.
Four women, model Gisele Bundchen, a singer Taylor Swift,  talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Judge Judy Sheindlin, each  earned $45 million last year and tied for fourth place.
The entire list can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3mqr6f4