GEORGE CLOONEY was the highest paid actor in the world over the past year, which is a pretty amazing accomplishment. Even more amazing? He did it WITHOUT having to do any acting.
George hasn't been in any movies this year, but he made $233 million from the recent $1 BILLION purchase of his 'Casamigos' tequila brand . . . and he got some more dough from his endorsements and older movies.
George made a total of $239 million . . . easily enough to be #1 on the annual "Forbes" list of 'The Highest Paid Actors.' DWAYNE 'THE ROCK' JOHNSON is a distant second with $124 million.
He was also #2 last year . . . behind Mark Wahlberg of all people.
Here's this year's Top 10:
1. George Clooney, $239 million
2. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, $124 million
3. Robert Downey Jr., $81 million
4. Chris Hemsworth, $64.5 million
5. Jackie Chan, $45.5 million . . . Mostly from the Chinese box office, and his endorsements there.
6. Will Smith, $42 million
7. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, $40.5 million
8. Adam Sandler, $39.5 million . . . Mostly through his deal with Netflix.
9. Bollywood actor Salman Khan, $38.5 million
10. Chris Evans, $34 million
(Hit up Forbes.com for more . . . and since EVERYONE enjoys slideshows, here's the direct link to the Top 10 slideshow.)
"Forbes" also put out a list of the '10 Highest Paid Female Athletes,' and EIGHT of them are tennis players, including SERENA WILLIAMS, who's #1, after making $18.1 million over the past year.
Of course, Serena has been busy with her baby daughter during a lot of the past year, so only $62,000 of that came from tennis winnings. The other $18 million is from endorsements.
Here's the Top 10:
1. Serena Williams, $18.1 million, tennis
2. Caroline Wozniacki, $13 million, tennis
3. Sloane Stephens, $11.2 million, tennis
4. Garbine Muguruza, $11 million, tennis
5. Maria Sharapova, $10.5 million, tennis
6. Venus Williams, $10.2 million, tennis
7. P.V. Sindhu, $8.5 million, badminton
8. Simona Halep, $7.7 million, tennis
9. Danica Patrick, $7.5 million, racing
10. Angelique Kerber, $7 million, tennis
Tennis is the one sport where the money for the women is at least in the same universe as it is for the men . . . as opposed to, say, basketball. Average salaries in the NBA are 100 times what they are in the WNBA.
Let's just put it this way . . . the seventh highest-paid MALE athlete in the world earned a LOT more than $8.5 million over the past year. (And he was probably not a badminton player . . . not offense to badminton.)
(Hit up Forbes.com for more information.)