Sarah Jessica Parker Tied for First on Forbes' Highest-Paid Actress List

Sarah Jessica Parker hasn't been in too many movies lately. Yet the latest Forbes list of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood has Parker tied as for the top spot, at least for the last year. According to Forbes, the Sex and the City icon made $30 million in the last 12 months alone, although she hasn't been seen on screen since Sex and the City 2 was scorned by critics and fans last May. But being in movies, and even hit movies, doesn't count for everything on Forbes' list.

Parker and Angelina Jolie were each labeled Hollywood's highest-paid actresses, having each made $30 million from May 2010 to May 2011. Given that Sex and the City 2 opened last May, it helps explain a good deal of Parker's income. Yet reruns of the TV show and her lines of perfume and clothes made up much of the rest.

Jolie had a summer hit of her own last year with Salt, although she had a winter bomb with The Tourist months later. However, Forbes doesn't take into account how many movies these actresses were in or necessarily how well they did.

In Parker's case, she has barely worked in much outside of the Sex and the City franchise over the years. Yet that franchise is still insanely popular and profitable enough to keep her near the top of this list for years, even if she does little else in her career.

However, she will anchor her own non-City film, I Don't Know How She Does It, in the fall, and appear in the ensemble holiday movie New Year's Eve as well. Plus, there are bound to be Sex and the City 3 rumors and speculation for some time to come.

Several other actresses on Forbes' chart have also overcome recent flops, like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts and Katherine Heigl. Aniston made $28 million in the last year with no small help from the Friends franchise, while Witherspoon made the same despite mixed performances from How Do You Know and Water for Elephants. Roberts is enduring a flop at the moment with Larry Crowne, and Heigl has gone through a string of critically panned comedies since Knocked Up.

But due to these actresses' star power, upfront paychecks, side projects and residuals, they are easily among the wealthiest females in the business. Pundits like to complain that no one is bankable, at least at the box office, yet these women find ways to rake it in anyway.

Not everyone on the Forbes list has had to overcome disappointing movies, as Kristen Stewart is still riding high from Twilight, Cameron Diaz is trying to turn Bad Teacher into a sleeper hit, Sandra Bullock has her Oscar, and Meryl Streep has become box office gold over the years. But they are still looking up at Parker and Jolie, and will need to have major hits to overtake them any time soon.

Sources

Forbes- "Hollywood's Highest Paid Actresses"