Will Ferrell is a bankable star in Hollywood. Really

When Hollywood talks about "bankable" stars, it's really only talking about a handful of actors - Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster and Will Ferrell.

For every interesting box-office failure Ferrell offers the public, such as Melinda and Melinda or The Producers, he makes at least two megahits: consider Elf ($220-million worldwide); Anchorman ($90-million); Talladega Nights ($163-million); and last year's Blades of Glory ($145-million). Even Bewitched, dismissed as a flop by critics, hauled in $131-million, and none of these big numbers include home rentals. That math makes Ferrell's antics a solid investment. He's more than bankable - he's the bank itself.

And the former Saturday Night Live player earns every penny. A shameless ham, he will do anything for a laugh: run around naked, drape his ample, hairy trunk over a kitchen table, sport swimwear that would shame a Chippendales model, or, in his latest film, the deliriously silly Semi-Pro, vomit, sing a puerile disco song, wrestle a bear (yes, a real bear) and allow the camera to lovingly pan up his jiggling thighs, right into the underside of his jockstrap.

Fans flock to Ferrell's films because he creates characters endowed with a loveable mix of manic narcissism and keen vulnerability, guileless idiots-savant who are half Tasmanian devil, half wobbly puppy. You watch him because you know he will always up the frantic ante.
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