HOLLYWOOD—Celebrities are making money. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has nearly doubled his 2017 earnings, making $119 million in the past 12 months, according to Forbes. His earnings are down to a number of box-office successes, including “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “Skyscraper,” “Baywatch” and “The Fate of the Furious.”

The top spot was awarded to George Clooney, whose $239 million was already disclosed in last month’s celebrity rich list. Actors Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Jackie Chan and Will Smith were all in the top tier-earning more than Scarlett Johannson, with seventh place Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar matching the actress’s income. Completing the top 10 were Adam Sandler, actor Chris Evans and Salman Khan. While last year’s best paid actors list mainly featuring the same names as last year, 2017’s top earner Mark Wahlberg, who made $68 million was missing entirely. George Clooney returned to this year’s list, thanks to the sale of his Casamigos Tequila company to drinks giants Diageo in a deal worth $1 billion. Another actor returning to this year’s list is Will Smith, whose $42 million income puts him in sixth place.

Scarlett Johannson was revealed as the highest paid actress last week, earning $40.5 million. That would have placed the Black Widow star as seventh in the male rankings. Scarlett’s earnings have risen from $10 million to $40.5 million in the past year. This is a departure from last year’s Forbes list, which saw the highest paid actress Emma Stone fail to score in the top 10 male earnings.

Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid male actors for 2018 are: George Clooney – $239 million, Dwayne Johnson – $119 million, Robert Downey Jr – $79 million, Chris Hemsworth – $64.5 million, Jackie Chan -$45.5 million, Will Smith – $42 million, Akshay Kumar -$40.5 million, Adam Sandler – $39.5 million, Chris Evans – $34 million and Salman Khan – $33.5 million. The Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid actresses for 2018 are: Scarlett Johansson – $40.5 million, Angelina Jolie – $28 million, Jennifer Aniston – $19.5 million, Jennifer Lawrence – $18 million, Reese Witherspoon – $16.5 million, Mila Kunis – $16 million, Julia Roberts – $13 million, Cate Blanchett – $12.5 million, Melissa McCarthy – $12 million and Gal Gadot – $10 million.

Madonna’s net worth is extremely high, compared to actresses. The music business is truly lucrative, no wonder everyone wants to be a part of the industry. She’s an influential and best-selling recording musical artist who has a net worth of $800 million. Madonna, whose birth name is Madonna Louise Ciccone, has sold over 250 million records worldwide to date.

Besides being influential she’s also controversial. However, this time she hit back at critics who claimed her tribute to Aretha Franklin at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards was self-indulgent. The singer posted on Instagram explaining that she had been asked to share “any anecdotes I had in my career connected to Aretha Franklin.” In the post, Madonna went on to accuse people of having “short attention spans” and being “quick to judge.”

The singer who turned 60 on August 16, delivered a five-minute speech ending with her giving thanks to Franklin for “empowering all of us,” but her speech at the awards ceremony in New York didn’t go down well with some viewers who thought she spoke too much about herself and too little about the late Queen of Soul, who passed away on August 16. The same day that Elvis Presley died.

Madonna said: “I did not intend to do a tribute to her! That would be impossible in 2 minutes with all the noise and tinsel of an award show. I could never do her justice in this context or environment.”

“The Hung Up” singer, had faced criticism on social media following her VMA appearance for the fact most of the speech was an anecdote about her own career. In the monologue, Madonna talked about an audition at the start of her career when she sang Franklin’s “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman.” She told the audience about how she auditioned for “two very large French record producers” who “did not take me seriously.” She continued: “And why should they? Some skinny ass white girl is going to come up here and belt out a song by one of the greatest soul singers that ever lived, Acapella?” Madonna went on to describe how the producers didn’t call her for weeks but said they wanted to take her to Paris to make her a star. And the rest is history.”

Madonna presented the top award of the night, for Video of the Year, to Camila Cabello for “Havana.” Of course, Camila bowed to Madonna and dedicated her video of the year award to Madonna. It was one of two big awards for Cabello – she was also named artist of the year.

Rose’s Scoop: Kelly Clarkson and other singers like Adam Lambert, Katharine McPhee and others came out in droves to support Simon Cowell when he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 22. No surprise, since Simon’s musical talents as a music producer has helped countless careers.