Reese Witherspoon passes Julia Roberts... (1 Viewer)

Reese Witherspoon has just surpassed Julia Roberts as Hollywoods best paid actress. Reese will be making 29 million for an upcoming film.

29 million!!! Thats a lot of money for a one movie.

And Ryan Philippe will be joining with Chad Lowe in a support group for actors whose wives careers totally outsurpass theirs. Seriously, I heard he is not too happy.

I thought Chad Lowe and Hilary Swank separated.

~T

Thi, They did.

Well on the bright side, Philippe should do well should they ever divorce. Assuming there was no Pre-Nup. Wasn't his and Witherspoon's lever of fame a lot more equitable when they married?

Yeah, they were married in mid '99, just after Cruel Intentions was released. IMDB says that he made more on that one than she did, and she got third-billing, behind Gellar and him.

$29 million? No actor, not even Streep, DeNiro and Pacino in their prime, is worth that much.

The question now is, after her oscar win on sunday, what big-budget flop of an action picture is she going to star in?

It baffles me why 2 huge, bankable oscar winners, as well as the oscar nominated actress from Hotel Rwanda, went that route.

Regards,
Nathan

It's not surprising to me that Sophie Okonedo did Aeon Flux; presumably, she got a big paycheck, and with very little risk involved for her, since nobody knew she was in it anyway. But for Charlize and Halle to agree to be in crap like that is more surprising, considering that big leading names are definitely putting things on the line to some extent when star vehicles get built around them. They obviously hoped that those movies could bring them a similar kind of post-Oscar success that Jolie had with Tomb Raider, but they chose...poorly.

Charlize signed on for Aeon Flux and North Country before she won the Oscar.

Oh, she did? I didn't know that.

It would seem that the studio writing Ms. Witherspoon a $29 million check would disagree.

Good for her. She's talented, attractive and apparently can put butts in the seats.

I see nothing special about Reese

I don't get the love for Witherspoon either, and I don't think she was all that special in Walk the Line as well (I see it as a supporting actress part), but she'll get the Oscar because no other actress got enough press to deny her the statue this year, plus it was a weak year for Best Actress performances.

Where did this news come from, exactly? I'm having a hard time believing it.

Patrick,
I thought she was the very, very best thing about Walk The Line.

It's not about how good the actors are (Streep will never earn what Chris Tucker does)...it's about what the opening weekend they can deliver is.

Reese is a HUGE draw for females. Men like her and women love her, which is much rarer than you think. She opens films, she promotes them on the circuit, and she is a good to great actor.

I agree most actors get paid beyond what they bring to a film, but it's not show friends, it's show business. Actors earn what they make. I highly doubt Reese will parlay her award into an action film (like the last two). As I stated elsewhere, she was a bona fide box office draw BEFORE her award win.

Travis, I head on the Entertainment top stories of the day this morning on NY's 95.5 WPLJ. Its a pretty big station in NY.

What really baffles me is that Reese is getting $29 million to do a HORROR MOVIE!

A horror movie! Horror movies aren't usually high-budget affairs. For $29 million, she better be flawless in this movie.

I think I've seen that "Baby baby baby" *slam door* snippet so much that that's about the only thing I remember of Witherspoon's performance in that movie.

If she wasn't she's damn close, and Phoenix's performance as Cash was one for the ages. Hell, all her interviews and the stories I've heard of her gaved the impression of a shallow, grating bitch. But I think her win for Best Actress is absolutely the right choice this year. What makes the WTL performances transcendent is that they aren't tasked with merely impersonating these people. They find a way to inhabit not only the mannerisms but the complex and conflicting emotional currents that roil through this film. Cash has many typical rock-star faults, but in many other ways he is a one-of-a-kind man. That is worth Best Actor. June is the straight man to his movie-steering personality. Witherspoon not only went two-to-two with Pheonix, she made June's motivations and emotions accessible, relateable, and understandable.

With all of that being said, NOBODY deserves $29 million. Hollywood complains about escalating production costs yet greenlights salaries like this? Ridiculous.

WPLJ is frequently incorrect with their entertainment reporting. They usually get their news from other sources and are just repeating, usually erroneously, someone else's story. Same for Z100.

Not saying that they are wrong, but I wouldn't take anything said on WPLJ as "fact".

Besides, Terry RL said she was going to earn $25 million. I trust him more.

Regardless, it's a tremenous amount of money and I say if Reese can get it, good for her.