Wednesday, November 30, 2005
LOS ANGELES — Oscar winners Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman are Hollywood's two highest-paid actresses, commanding $20 million and $17 million per film respectively, the Hollywood Reporter said Wednesday.

Even though "Pretty Woman" siren Roberts, 38, is making fewer movies and spending more time with her young twins, she remains Hollywood's most powerful female star in salary terms, the Reporter said.

"She's still perceived as the highest-paid actress in Hollywood," the industry publication said of the holder of first place on its list of the 10 best-paid movie actresses.

Kidman, also 38, was in second place, mustering $16-17 million per picture since she won the best actress Oscar for her role as Virginia Wolfe in 2003's "The Hours."

"This Oscar winner has built her reputation on taking risky roles and accepting smaller fees just for the chance to continue challenging herself — but that doesn't mean she can't command the big bucks when she wants to," the Reporter said.
Kidman has risen to the top of Hollywood's most powerful women since she won the Oscar, emerging from the shadow of ex-husband Tom Cruise who she married when she was an aspiring Australian starlet.

She reportedly earned $17.5 million for her role in this year's thriller "The Interpreter," and $16 million for next year's sci-fi release "The Visiting." Her next big role is as photographer Diane Arbus in "Fur."

Flaxen-haired Reese Witherspoon, who won world fame for her role in "Legally Blonde," is in third place, commanding $15 million per picture, according to the Reporter.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Russell Wilcox is a retired college professor who spends several months in Florida and several months in Rhode Island each year, and whose interests include boating and sailing, political activism, ballroom dancing and bridge. He has an MBA from Harvard, a Computer Systems CAGS from Bryant and a BS from Northeastern. He has worked in industry for EG&G and Texas Instruments, operated his own business with more than 200 employees, and served as Director of the Computer Information Systems Program for Stonehill College. He is a published author of two technical studies, and is the proud father of four children and the proud grandfather of six grandchildren. A holder of two patents in microchip connections and a true product of the melting pot, his father is the son of a Yankee farmer, and his mother the second generation daughter of Italian immigrants who retained their culture, but strove mightily to become Americans, sending four sons to fight against Hitler and Mussolini.