1. Madonna
$72 million
The ever-morphing singer still outsells artists half her age. She tops the Cash Queens list thanks largely to her record-breaking Confessions tour, plus income from album sales, an apparel line with retailer H&M and a deal with NBC to air concert footage
2. Barbra Streisand
$60 million
The 65-year-old legend, with 145 million albums sold worldwide to her credit, drew legions of die-hard fans to her short (and rare) concert series that wrapped in Europe last summer. Some tickets sold for upward of $1,000 apiece.
3. Celine Dion
$45 million
The Canadian diva's landmark Las Vegas concert drew some 3 million fans and grossed upward of $450 million during its five-year run, which ended in December.
4. Shakira
$38 million
The Colombian chanteuse shook her trademark hips from Mexico to India on a tireless tour that saw her perform 111 concerts before it was over.
5. Beyoncé
$27 million
The former Destiny's Child front woman is an endorsement darling, boasting deals with blue-chip brands like American Express, L'Oreal and Samsung.
6. Gwen Stefani
$26 million
Her last album, The Sweet Escape, peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, her best performance as a solo artist. The 38-year-old platinum blonde also has an endorsement deal with HP, her own fashion label and a recently launched fragrance.
7. Christina Aguilera
$20 million
Critics adored the retro stylings of Back to Basics, her third studio album, which also proved popular with fans. Aguilera also inked deals with Pepsi and Orange, a European cellphone operator. In January, the 27-year-old welcomed her first child, Max.
8. Faith Hill
$19 million
Country's beauty-queen crooner joined husband Tim McGraw on the road for the Soul2Soul II tour, one of the year's fastest-selling, top-grossing American concert series, beating out even the U.S. leg of Madonna's Confessions tour. Hill also belts out NBC's Sunday Night Football theme song.
9. Dixie Chicks
$18 million
Despite vehement criticism from country fans of their anti-war, anti-Bush politics, the Dixie Chicks proved their resilience with their seventh studio album, the Grammy-winning Taking the Long Way Home. Though it immediately topped country and pop charts, the tour to promote the album was hit-or-miss. The Chicks canceled dates in Texas and Oklahoma following refusals from several radio stations to advertise the event.
10. Mariah Carey
$13 million
The 37-year-old pop and R&B diva makes good money off of her extensive catalog. (Her 10 studio albums have sold over 100 million copies worldwide.) The musical director for her last tour, dubbed The Adventures of Mimi, was longtime collaborator Randy Jackson, judge of American Idol.
11. Hilary Duff
$12 million
The 20-year-old former child star of Disney's Lizzie McGuire has quickly established herself as a credible pop star thanks to Dignity, her modestly selling recent studio album. Though acting and music may be her passions, retail is her biggest moneymaking asset. Stuff by Hilary Duff, merchandise targeting her tween fans, is available at Kohl's and JCPenney.
12. Avril Lavigne
$12 million
Marriage hasn't slowed this 23-year-old rocker down. Her third studio album, The Best Damn Thing, topped the pop charts last year and spawned an international mega-hit from its first single "Girlfriend." The video for that song is the second most-watched clip on YouTube, with over 69 million views. Lavigne recorded the chorus to the song in seven other languages, including Mandarin and German.
13. Martina McBride
$12 million
The 41-year-old country crooner's ninth studio album, Waking Up Laughing, was an unlikely crossover hit last year, earning top 10 spots on the country, adult contemporary and Hot 100 charts. (She's still on the road promoting the album on tour.) She and her husband own and operate Nashville's Blackbird Studio, where A-list music acts like John Bon Jovi and Keith Urban have recorded.
14. Britney Spears
$8 million
The former pop-superstar-turned-tabloid-staple eeks out a sizable income from her catalog of hits--the 26-year-old has sold over 80 million records worldwide over the course of her career--and royalties from sales of her fragrance lines. Critics be damned, her latest album, Blackout, has been a modest hit.
15. Carrie Underwood
$7 million
American Idol's fourth-season champ saw her debut album, Some Hearts, sell 8 million copies worldwide and spawn a mega-hit of its third single, "Before He Cheats." (Over 2 million downloads and counting.) Her sophomore effort, Carnival Ride, has sold over 2 million copies. Word is she'll hit the road this year with Keith Urban to promote their respective albums.
16. Nelly Furtado
$7 million
The one-time folk-indie-songstress-turned-pop-star partnered with uber-producer Timbaland for her third album, Loose, said to have sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. The album launched eight hit singles, including "Promiscuous." Furtado, 29, also appeared in Timbaland's "Give It To Me" single with Justin Timberlake
17. Fergie
$6 million
The Black Eyed Peas singer scored big with her debut solo album The Duchess, which landed five hit singles, including "Glamorous" and "Big Girls Don't Cry." Born Stacy Ann Ferguson, the 32-year-old also bagged endorsements with Kipling bags and Candie's shoes.
18. Jennifer Lopez
$6 million
Despite weak album sales of her first Spanish-language album Como Ama una Mujer and limited touring, J.Lo still rakes it in, mostly from her catalog, clothing sales and incredibly successful fragrances. (There are six fragrances so far.) Lopez also collected a paycheck for her credit in El Cantante, the biopic of salsa star Hector Lavoe co-starring hubby Marc Anthony. Lopez, 38, who also runs her own production company, is reportedly expecting twins.
19. Sheryl Crow
$6 million
The nine-time Grammy-winning pop-rock singer enjoyed income from her catalog and a smallish 2006 tour to promote her last album, Wildflowers. During that period, Crow overcame a breast cancer diagnosis and endured a very public breakup with Lance Armstrong. Last year she adopted a son, Wyatt Steven. In February, Crow, 45, will release Detours, her sixth studio album
20. Norah Jones
$5.5 million
The 28-year-old mellow rocker released her third album, Not Too Late, earlier this year and has reportedly sold 3 million copies worldwide to date. She also enjoyed income from a worldwide tour to promote the album. This year she'll make her big screen acting debut opposite Jude Law in My Blueberry Nights.
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Here's Victoria Beckham appearing in the buff on a T-shirt for designer Marc Jacobs as part of a campaign to warn people about skin cancer.
The shirts, signed by Posh, will be on sale in Marc's shops starting next week.
Victoria said: "Since we moved to California I have realized how important it is to practice safe sun for myself and to keep my three boys' skin well protected as well.
"Skin cancer is a huge problem, and I really wanted to help raise awareness by taking part in Marc’s initiative."
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Filming of Michelle Williams's next movie, Blue Valentine, has been put on hold while the actress copes with the death of Heath Ledger, a source tells PEOPLE.
"We will hold off until she is ready," says a source connected with the film. "The production is in the process of sorting it out in respect to her."
The movie – a relationship drama centered around a young couple struggling with their marriage – also stars Ryan Gosling, who Williams was rumored to be dating after they were spotted strolling together in New York before the holidays.
Production on the film was set to start on February 25, but has been moved back to an indefinite date.
"We're hoping she will still come back and do the film and are happy to wait," the source says. "The film is tailor made for those two so of course we would want to wait. You can't get much better than them."
Williams had just finished shooting her last scene in the film "Mammuth" in Sweden when she received the news of Ledger's death.
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Cheryl Cole made plans to start trying for a baby with her football star husband even after he confessed to his drunken encounter with another woman, she has revealed.
Ashley Cole's night with 22-year-old Aimee Walton hit the headlines last week. The Girls Aloud singer, 24, has told how she had known for six weeks about her husband's illicit night out with a woman who claimed they slept together.
In a revealing interview that took place just days before the story became public, Cheryl said they had set a date to start working on a family.
This was after Cole confessed to his wife, according to reports, that "something happened last night but I was so drunk I don't know what."
She told OK! magazine: "My schedule with Girls Aloud is booked up to the summer and then we're having a break and I want me and Ashley to have some time together, so that we can enjoy each other as a married couple before anything else.
"That means so much to me. Then after that we can start working on that baby. "I want to be a young mum so I can go out with them like my mam does."
Cole has also told OK!: "You just can't work through affairs sometimes. Trust is so important to me."
She even admitted that she'd know straight away if Ashley was getting up to no good.
She said: "I'd be able to sense it if there was something wrong.
"The moment I start believing the rumours and stop believing him, that's the time I'd have to end it. The most important thing is trust and honesty."
This weekend, the Girls Aloud star dismissed claims that her footballer husband, 27, had sex with a hairdresser last month.
"That's utter rubbish. When he is under the influence he isn't capable," she told the News of the World.
She said the pair are hoping to rebuild their relationship.
This isn't the first time there have been allegations of infidelity, but during the interview Cheryl laughed off any suggestion that that he has strayed.
"He's never given me any reason to doubt him.
"It doesn't bother me when I see pictures of him coming out of clubs with girls trying to throw themselves on him because I know he's not interested in them.
And more prophetically she added: "I would always take Ashley's word over anyone's unless I had solid, hard evidence something definitely was true.
"It just hasn't been an issue and it won't become one - we trust each other."
However, following reports that Cheryl was prepared to stand by Ashley, two other women have claimed they have also slept with the Chelsea star.
Blonde model Brooke Healy, says she slept with Cole five months after his wedding.
And it has also been claimed that a third woman, Coralie Robinson, was paid hush money of £10,000 after having sex with Cole in 2004 - the year he got engaged.
The Girls Aloud singer was said to be "shocked and upset" that hairdresser Aimee was allegedly offered money to have an abortion.
A friend said: "The relationship is very much hanging in the balance."
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No need for any more honorary citizenships for talk-show host Craig Ferguson. He's going to be the real deal.
The "Late Late Show" host announced Monday that he got a perfect score on his citizenship test, taken Friday in Los Angeles. The Scottish-born Ferguson will officially be sworn in a few weeks from now.
"All of you people born here, if you had to take that test — well, Canada would be building a fence right now," he said on his CBS show Monday.
It started as a joke last June, when Ferguson received a letter from the mayor of Ozark, Ark., granting him "honorary citizenship" of the town for his kind words about its catfish. Ferguson started a campaign to get the designation elsewhere and is now an honorary citizen of 16,109 communities nationwide.
Deciding to become a citizen of the nation at large required him to take a test with such questions as "What month is the new president inaugurated?" and "Who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court?"
He made it. And in the true American spirit, was already joking that President Bush's final State of the Union address "was like a farewell, special edition of 'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?'"
"I'm getting cocky for someone who is not yet a citizen, aren't I?" he said.
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The former Brookside actress has won acclaim for her role in American drama Pushing Daisies and was recently nominated for a best actress gong at the Golden Globes.
She admits to being "slightly scared" of LA in the beginning when she didn't really have a circle of friends and regular work.
But now she has a house and is more settled she finds that she is regularly host to visiting Brits.
"My house has become a refuge for British actors," she said. "Normally everyone has to stay in hotels and everyone's like 'Friel's got a house, let's go and crash at hers!'
"The house hasn't been empty once, we've always had guests and all of them have been British.
"I don't feel too homesick because most of my friends out there are English. I haven't gone out of my way not to meet Americans, it's just happened to be that there's lots of Brits around."
Anna told Newsbeat the LA lifestyle can be fake but she does things her own way, like getting rid of her personal assistant.
She said: "It's very strange. Now I've got publicists and lawyers and managers and agents. Your entourage gets bigger and bigger and bigger."
She has also spoken about the differences between working for American and British television.
On US productions she said: "It's a very well-oiled slick machine. The hours are much longer, the crews are much bigger, the budgets are much bigger - I'm having the best time ever.
"Americans make television like no-one else in the world. The production values are so high. It feels special, it feels exciting."
Perhaps one of the reasons Anna has settled in so well is her ability to adopt the American accent.
She said: "I don't come out of accent - and my mum doesn't like it if I'm on the phone but I don't know if it's become a kind of superstitious discipline now.
"From the minute I get into my car and I arrive at work, I'm American Anna and at the end of the day I bring my own accent back.
"The crew think it's funny whenever I speak English. They say 'Why are you doing that silly accent? What is that accent?' They think my English is the one I've put on."
Anna is also managing to juggle a successful career with bringing up her young daughter.
Although she admitted that it can be hard, she said it helped to have Gracie on set every day.
"There's no better set for any child to come and visit than Pushing Daisies. She comes in and there's monkeys on the set and fields of windmills and there's now a sweetie shop.
"She comes in and says 'Mummy's got the best job in the world!'"
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Rap superstars, TVT Records' Pitbull and Arista Records' Baby Bash, come together to co-headline a Spring tour. The cross country tour kicks off in Orlando on Saturday, March 15 in support of their new albums; "The Boatlift" and "Cyclone," respectively. Pitbull and Baby Bash have massive internet followings, are two of the most searched for Latin artists on Myspace, and both have been the #1 Latin artist on the site.
"It's been long over due for me and Pit to hit the road together; finally our fans can see us both together for one ticket. You can't beat that with a whoopin' stick," says Baby Bash about the upcoming tour.
Baby Bash's first smash single from the new album, "Cyclone," (featuring T-Pain) has already sold more than 1.5 million digital singles, surpassed the 1 million mark in ringtones, and hit Top 10 on the rap and mainstream radio charts, making him one of the hottest stars in the country. The second single, "What Is It" (featuring Sean Kingston) is currently Top Ten on the rap chart and is heating up at mainstream radio.
This is the first national tour for Pitbull since joining Lil Jon on the Anger Management Tour in 2005. "I can't wait to get out on the road with Baby Bash. I want to use this opportunity to connect with my all my fans and million plus Myspace friends," says Pitbull.
"The Boatlift" showcases Pitbull's lyrical prowess as he crusades through 18 tracks penning clever and captivating rhymes on each song. Pitbull has created an incredibly diverse album ranging from R&B-influenced sounds like first single "Secret Admirer" feat Lloyd, to hypnotic club banger "Go Girl" teaming with Trina and Young Boss, and current Afro-Cuban melodic single "The Anthem" with a bombastic chant by Lil Jon. "The Anthem" is number 17 on the Top 40 Rhythm chart and breaking big on Mainstream Top 40 (Pop) radio.
Baby Bash originally from Vallejo, CA now based in Houston, TX, has garnered a loyal following as a rapper-singer mixing hip-hop and R&B with his Latin roots. Bash's major label debut album, "The Smokin' Nephew" (certified gold), and the follow up "Super Saucy," featured the #1 hit singles, "Suga Suga" (featuring Frankie J) and "Baby I’m Back" (featuring Akon). Bash also penned and performed on the smash records with Frankie J, "Obsession" and Paula Deanda, "Doing Too Much." Most recently Bash was featured with Jennifer Lopez on "This Boy’s On Fire" from Santana’s Ultimate Santana.
Cuban-American MC Pitbull surpassed gold status for more than 500,000 copies sold of his debut album "M.I.A.M.I.: Money Is A Major Issue" in the United States. The feat gave Pitbull the biggest-selling bilingual hip-hop debut since Cypress Hill's 1991 self-titled debut, and put him in the rare category of Latino rappers who have achieved major success in English language radio. In addition to being the #1 Latin artist on Myspace, Pitbull unleashed his sophomore album El Mariel in late 2006 spawning the #1 Latin Rap hit, "Dime".
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