Oprah the Most Powerful Celebrity? Media Mogul Tops Forbes List for Fifth Time
Oprah Winfrey scored the number one spot on Forbes "Most Powerful Celebrity" list, taking an edge over Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.
After spending two years on the list in second place, Oprah was named as the most powerful celebrity for Forbes 2013 list. This will mark the fifth time that the former talk show host, whose name has appeared on the list since 1999, was ranked no. 1.
"There is nobody else with that kind of consistency and power," Dorothy Pomerantz of Forbes.com, told Reuters during an interview. "There are only three people who have been on every single one of our lists since 1999. It is Oprah, Howard Stern and Steven Spielberg."
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Despite a hip injury preventing her from finishing out a world tour, Lady Gaga was named the second most powerful celebrity. Also one of the top-earning women in the world, Gaga has established a name for herself as "Mother Monster."
"She is still a huge force in pop music. Even when she is not playing, people are talking abut her and speculating about her," Pomerantz said.
Much of her following is driven from social media sites. She has over 38 million followers on Twitter alone. In the past year she has earned over $80 million according to Forbes.
In third place, Steven Spielberg broke through, coming off of his seventh place last year. His success was attributed to "Lincoln" which won several awards. Last year he earned over $100 million. Bon Jovi took the movie producer's seventh place spot.
Beyonce, Madonna, and Taylor Swift took up the next three spots on a top 10 list that was heavy with female winners. Social media played a large role in the deciding factor.
"In today's world celebrities have this enormous ability to reach out to their fans, who really are their customers, and to sell their product, which is really themselves. If they don't take advantage of that it hurts them," said Pomerantz.
Tennis player Roger Federer took the ninth place spot with Justin Bieber rounding off the list in tenth place.
