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400 Club: Lucas Golden, Martha Gone
2006-09-22
The force is still with George Lucas. The self-made Star Wars mastermind landed at number 70 on the Forbes 400 this year with an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion. For the first time ever, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's richest people--which mainly serves to remind readers how little money they have--contained only billionaires. Lucas, 62, who announced earlier this week that his Lucasfilm Foundation will be donating $175 million to his alma mater, the University of Southern California's film school, has actually seen his bottom line grow since 2005, when the third installment of the second, er, first trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, Revenge of the Sith, grossed $850 million worldwide. And with that lofty spot on the Forbes 400 comes the honor of serving as Grand Marshal of the 2007 Tournament of Roses parade, which will now be coming at you live New Year's Day replete with THX surround sound and a lot of digital imaging. Proving that making a giant-shark movie can be a smart career move, Steven Spielberg--no slouch himself in the creative department--grabbed the number 94 spot, topping out at $2.9 billion after a year that included the release of the $590 million-grossing War of the Worlds and the sale of DreamWorks SKG to Paramount for $1.5 billion. According to Forbes, Spielberg saw about $175 million of that action and his overall monetary holdings have also gotten heftier since 2005. The 59-year-old director-producer, who's also getting into the reality game with Mark Burnett for an Apprentice-style, find-a-great-filmmaker show for Fox, is set to team up with Lucas for the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. Speaking of The Apprentice, Donald Trump is sitting right alongside Spielberg these days, tying him for 94th place with a net worth of $2.9 billion (although the 60-year-old real estate mogul has scoffed at Forbes' estimate, proclaiming himself to be worth $6 billion). And Oprah Winfrey is still on track to take over the world, with her $1.5 billion putting her at number 242 on the list. The 52-year-old multimedia maven has a channel devoted to Oprah-friendly programming, called Oprah & Friends, debuting Monday on XM Satellite Radio, and her eponymous syndicated talk show still draws 49 million viewers a week. Meanwhile, now we know that $395 million really can make a difference. That's the amount that Forbes has determined Martha Stewart lost over the past year, knocking her off the list completely. The Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Founder was comforted after reminding herself that she still has more money than God. Once again, nobody could touch Bill Gates' $53 billion. Other familiar faces in the top 100 were News Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch ($7.7 billion), Tom Cruise's best friend, Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone ($7.5 billion); Apple visionary Steve Jobs ($4.9 billion); and fashion mogul Ralph Lauren ($3.9 billion).
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