Celebrity Rich List for 2017

As the curtain drops on another year, and we enter the annual fortnight of decadence, drunkenness, and debauchery that is Christmas and New Year, Forbes' have published their annual reminder of just how trivial you all are in comparison to the rich and famous. For anyone who follows popular culture, there should be no real surprises amongst the arena-grade popstars, championship winning sportspeople, and best-selling authors. Some of the richest celebrities over the years have earned more money from sponsorships and endorsements including fashion, consumer electronics and even online casino games than from their primary jobs (yes there are even slot machine games endorsed by Celebrities, as listed here at Nodepositfriend.com!)

LeBron James

Cleveland Cavaliers' star Lebron James is without doubt, the most recognisable face in basketball right now. For the 2016-17 season, the four-time MVP was officially the highest paid star in the NBA. This season already, he's played 23 games for his club. However, it's not just game time that bags LBJ the bucks. He's also got some juicy side hustles too. His sponsors include Intel, Verizon, Coca Cola, and Beats. Global sportswear icons Nike even have him on a lifetime deal that could earn him $1 billion. He might not be the highest paid sports star on our list, but King James is definitely not struggling either!

James Patterson

James Patterson writes books. Well, he doesn't. He kind of orates a sparse plot to an actual author who writes scant vignettes that a Washington Post writer likens to "junk food". Patterson then pumps them out by the bucketful on his platform called Bookshots. He's apparently sold 300 million copies of his work, but you'll not find him on any literature reading lists. "His" pieces are stripped down tales without much of the linguistic flair that's made other novels into absolute classics. He's reported to have self-assuredly stated:

"I've taken the fat out of commercial novels. In an awful lot of novels, there's more in them than there should be."

Despite the opinion of many of his peers being that of indifference or disbelief, Patterson has made some serious scratch churning out the words. Forbes reckon he's made over $87 million this year.

Coldplay

Who's buying Coldplay records really? Someone out there must be. In fact, more than a couple of folk clearly do. Defying logic and belief, the band who originally hailed from London, England in 1996 have been consistently popular for over twenty years now. This is despite or perhaps because they've never written anything nearly exciting enough to be offensive. However, they must be doing something right. Forbes estimate that the group creamed in $88 million this year. When you consider that their "Head Full of Dreams" tour grossed over $5 million a night, it's easy to see how.

Howard Stern

Howard Stern presents the imaginatively titled "Howard Stern Show" on SiriusXM. I'm sure you knew that though. Unfortunately, I didn't. The name rings no bells. Then I saw his picture researching this celebrity rich list article and a faint memory of a '90s episode of The Simpsons where he ridiculed Mr Burns live on air returned. After rediscovering him, it appears he's pretty-damned offensive. Shock sells though. That's probably why his network offered him an absolute stack for his services recently. Forbes reckon he took home over $90 million in 2017 alone. Still don't properly know who he is though.

The Weekend

Canadian popstar The Weekend has also had a flier this year. His "Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour" kicked off in February in Stockholm and concluded ten months later in mid-December on the other side of the globe. Despite having earned $93 million this year, however, it's not all been flowers and sunshine for the 27-year-old popstar. He was plucked and subsequently chucked within the space of 12 months by Selena Gomez. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.

Christiano Ronaldo

Footballing franchise Christiano Ronaldo is our highest paid sportsperson. Thanks to a string of epic wins for his club, his country, and his club again, along with back-to-back Champions League titles, the Portuguese soccer star has raked in over $93 million in 2017. Whilst his successes on the field have bagged him a packet, the real money has come from his sponsorship deals. The 2009 FIFA Player of the Year relies on a strong social media presence to please the companies he's signed with. Online, Ronaldo is hot property. On average he made over on and a half posts referencing his sponsors every day on his Twitter account. This helped him rack up an estimated $936 million in media value for them.

Drake

The second Canadian on our list, Drake beat fellow countryman The Weekend in earnings in 2017 with over $94 million. The rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, entrepreneur, and all-round smug expletive even won a massive 13 honours at this year's Billboard Music Awards. This stellar performance also broke the record for most wins in a single night. Despite his questionable dance moves, the singer of "Hot Line Bling" has earned big thanks to his ten month "Boy Meets World" tour, as well as his "mixtape" album More Life debuting at number one in the Billboard 200. This would be his seventh smash hit.

J.K. Rowling

The author of the highly celebrated Harry Potter books has dragged her most famous character back into the public eye for a little bit more commercial success. It's almost like the series of novels she's famous for performed poorly for her. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the latest instalment of the best-selling franchise. It's a play penned by Rowling which sold 680,000 print copies in the UK in just the first three days of its publication. The following release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, gave her earnings an additional boost which saw her into ranks of the top three celebrity earners as well as taking the top spot for authors this year.

Yeah, we know she's done nothing of note in 2017 but Forbes start their twelve-month tally in May, and they're the only metric we've got to go on!

Beyoncé

Beyoncé is one of only two celebrities to break the meaningless milestone of $100 million. Realistically, is there any difference in the spending habits of someone who made $99 million and Queen Bee's $105 million? It's doubtful. Her success "this year" is largely due her "Formation" world tour, which took in $250 million (again only included in our list thanks to Forbes' May catchment zone technicality). Without an album release to back it up, it's doubtful she'd even have made it into the list at all had it run from New Year's Day to New Year's Eve.

Sean Combs

Serial entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs tops Forbes' list and thus takes our number one spot too. He's racked up a mind boggling $130 million thanks to the various pies he has his finger deep within. This year, he's had some particularly lucrative money-spinners too. He earned $130 million for an arrangement with Ciroc Vodka, and also sold the majority share in his Sean Jean fashion label for $70 million. These two juicy business deals, in combination with his "Bad Boy Family Reunion" tour, helped "Diddy" to reach the top. Kind of makes you and your puny annual salary seem pointless, eh?