Oprah Winfrey Tops Forbes List of Highest Paid Celebrities

Oprah Winfrey has topped Forbes' list of the highest-paid celebrities in 2012. The media mogel earned $165 million between May 2011 and May 2012. While the earnings mark a decline of $125 million from last year, Winfrey continues to hold on to the top spot due to the final season of her long-running talk show, as well as earnings from her magazine, her new network OWN, her spin off shows, including Rachel Ray and Dr. Oz, and a radio deal with Sirius. 

In second place is movie director Michael Bay, who earned $160 million. His Blockbuster film Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon brought in a healthy $1.1 billion at the box office.

Steven Spielberg is in the number 3 spot, earning $130 million. His company DreamWorks produced Falling Skies, Terra Nova and Smash for television and the Oscar-nominated films The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse.

Coming in at number four is Jerry Bruckheimer with $115 million. His movie Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides took in $1 billion at the box office.

Dr. Dre rounds out the top five, earning $110 million courtesy of HTC paying $300 million for a 51 percent stock in his headphone company, Beats by Dr. Dre.

Included in the top 10 are Tyler Perry ($105 million), Howard Stern ($95 million), James Patterson ($94 million), George Lucas ($90 million) and Simon Cowell ($90 million).

To view the complete Forbes list, click here. 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.