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IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
We bring you 10 most powerful female celebrities according to Forbes who have not just built empires by themselves but have also left their mark in the world with their philanthropic work.
Forbes magazine has released its list of the most powerful female celebrities in the world. The women were ranked not just by the money they made but also by the influence they held as well as how much they gave back to the society.
Gisele Bundchen
The mother of one and the only supermodel in the Forbes list of the most powerful women celebrity, Gisele Bundchen is said to have made over $45 million in the last one year.
Bundchen (32) endorses for multiple brands including Pantene, Esprit and Versace among others. This is not counting the money she makes from Ipanema flip-flops and beauty products that bear her name and of course the various modelling assignments that ensure the dollars keep rolling in.
In spite of this packed schedule, Gisele Bundchen has managed to find time to associate herself with the United Nations Environmental Program which is credited with planting over 50,000 trees in Brazil this year. She has also donated $1 million to the Japanese Red Cross for Earthquake relief as also launched a model search in Brazil'most impoverished areas in the hope to boost the self esteem of her home country's slum dwellers.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
JK Rowling
The shrewd author who had retained the e-book rights to the world famous Potter series made all the books available in digital form last year via the online store Pottermore. In its first month itself, the store did over $4 million setting a benchmark in publishing. JK Rowling is the only author so far to have negotiated such a hard deal.
As her first adult book -- a dark comedy called The Casual Vacancy -- became the fastest-selling book in the UK in three years and had the second best-selling opening week there since Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, Rowling made it to Forbes' top ten most powerful women.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Sofia Vergara
The Modern Family star has been making the most of her Hispanic roots as brands and media try to reach out to the $1 trillion Hispanic consumer market. The 40-year-old Colombian actress who is said to be playing hard ball with 20th Century Fox for a better salary along with her Modern Family co-stars is also the co-founder of a talent management and new media company LatinWE that reportedly made over $ 27million last year.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Angelina Jolie
Even though she didnt have any big blockbusters this year, Angelina Jolie managed to make $20 million courtesy her endorsement campaigns. As a special envoy to the High Commissioner of the UNHCR, the UN's special agency for refugees, Jolie has donated $100,000 to the UNHCR to assist Syrian refugees. Jolie has been more than generous to worthy causes and in 2010 donated $2.3 million to various charitable programmes in 2010 including Doctors without Borders.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Ellen DeGeneres
She is the star and executive producer of the eponymous daytime talk-show that is currently in its tenth season. Besides helping her friend Bethenny Frankel in her daytime debut during a six week, Ellen Degeneres (54) is also the face of JCPenney, a popular departmental store of which she was once an employee.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Shakira
Shakira was all of 13 when she started her music career. Since then she has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide besides having earned two Grammies as well as Latin Grammies.
Besides being the UNICEF ambassador and founder of the Barefoot Foundation that she started in the hope to provide and better early education systems around the world, Shakira also donate over $400,000 to the victims of the Haiti earthquake of 2010. The Hips Don't Lie hitmaker is said to be negotiating a $60 million deal between concert producer Live Nation and Sony for her next three albums and tours.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Jennifer Lopez
Last year Jennifer Lopez is said to made an estimated $52 million from her various business interests besides her many lucrative endorsements. She also launched her first international music tour and chose not to return to American Idol as a judge because she was 'a little bit tired now'.
JLo has also been giving back to the society through the Lopez Family Foundation that she'd founded along with her sister and works in the areas of health and well-being of women and children around the world. The foundation is helping develop telemedicine programmes in Los Angeles, Panama and Puerto Rico.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Beyonce
After giving birth to daughter Blue Ivy Carter in January, Beyonce Knowles was back in business in May with her sold-out four-night performance. It may have been an off-year for the singing sensation but Beyonce has made enough and more from her old hits as well as her new album 4 besides raking in the green stuff from her clothing line House of Dereon as well as other endorsement deals.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Lady Gaga
Having made $52 million in the last year, Lady Gaga also focussed on philanthropic work as she continued her association with MAC AIDS Foundation besides launching her own non-profit, the Born This Way Foundation. Even though she slipped to number two this year on the Forbes list 'due to a lack of touring', her social media influence (with over 24 million followers) ensured she stayed at number two.
IN PICS: Top 10 celebrity Power Women
Oprah Winfrey
Her 24-hour cable channel OWN or Oprah Winfrey Network may be struggling with finances but Oprah Winfrey has topped the list of the top ten celebrity power women. For one the channel has struck a deal with Comcast which will help it reach 83 million homes besides having swung in hard-to-get exclusive interviews. Winfrey herself will return to the big screen alongside Forest Whitaker with The Butler that tells the story of Eugene Allen who served eight American Presidents over the course of 30 years.
Winfrey supports educational causes and has according to Forbes spent over $100 million for the cause. The magazine estimates her total donations would be close to $400 million.