TV Stars’ Salaries Commensurate With Ego

The compiling compulsives at Forbes have once again amassed a list of famous people graded according to their gross annual income, this time focusing the wealth-as-worth index on Hollywood’s lucrative TV sector. (No, you aren’t having deja vu – TV Guide did a similar list a few months ago, but Forbes’s editors are far better equipped to type out 9-figure salaries without having their fingers tremble.) On it, you’ll spot the familiar faces of any number of trap-jawed cooks and follicly deficient self-help gurus, birthed in test tubes at Harpo Laboratories and currently reaping the generous rewards of multi-year syndie strip deals. Childless divinity Oprah Winfrey, of course, sits atop this list as she sits atop all the others, having added another $US260 million to her estimated $US1.5 billion fortune. But today we single out Judge Judy Sheindlin, who managed to parlay a modest living as a fire-breathing Manhattan Family Court judge into a television empire, converting us along the way into a nation of ardent Judyites who wouldn’t hesitate to use the always-effective, “Bup! Bup! Bup! I do the talking here, not you!” as a practical means to conflict resolution.

• TV’s Top Earners [Forbes.com]