In Hollywood, payday is king

In the race to the top of the Hollywood heap, money and power go hand in hand. Anyone hoping to win, place, or show relies on both to get them across the finish line. Based on various reports, here’s a sampling of Tinseltown’s payday prizewinners and pacesetters.

$20 MILLION AND ABOVE

? Whitney Houston More than $100 million for a new multialbum deal with Arista
? Mariah Carey More than $100 million for a four-album deal with Virgin
? Kelsey Grammer $38 million-plus per year for ”Frasier” (more than $1.6 million per episode; 24-episode season; through 2003-04)
? Mike Myers $25 million against 21 percent of the gross for cowriting, producing, and starring in ”Austin Powers in Goldmember”
? Bruce Willis $22.5 million for ”Hart’s War”
? Michael Crichton $40 million two-book deal with HarperCollins
? Nicolas Cage $20 million for ”Windtalkers”
? Tommy Lee Jones $20 million for ”Men in Black II”
? Martin Lawrence $20 million for ”National Security”; $20 million for a ”Blue Streak” sequel
? Leonardo DiCaprio $20 million for ”Gangs of New York”

$15-19 MILLION

? Drew Carey Up to $19.5 mil per year for ”The Drew Carey Show” ($600,000-$750,000 per episode; 26-episode season; through 2003-04)
? Ray Romano $19 mil-plus per year for ”Everybody Loves Raymond”
? Brad Pitt Around $18 million for ”Spy Game”
? David Chase More than $15 million to exec-produce a fifth season of ”The Sopranos”
? Richard Gere $15 million for ”Unfaithful”; $15 million for ”The Mothman Prophecies”
? Russell Crowe $15 million for ”A Beautiful Mind”

$10-14 MILLION

? Matt Damon $10 million for ”The Bourne Identity,” but he (along with others in the cast) took a one-third pay cut for Steven Soderbergh’s ”Ocean’s 11”
? Ben Affleck $12.5 million for ”Gigli,” up from $10 million for ”The Sum of All Fears”
? Vin Diesel More than $11 mil for ”Pitch Black: The Chronicles of Riddick”; $10 mil for ”XXX”
? Jet Li $10 mil-per-film Miramax deal, including a Tibetan-monk action comedy
? Gwyneth Paltrow $10 million for ”View From the Top”
? Barry Levinson $10 million to direct ”Bandits”

$5-9 MILLION

? Noah Wyle Around $9 million per year for ”ER,” through 2003-04
? Edward Norton Around $6.5 million for the early Hannibal Lecter tale ”Red Dragon”
? Patricia Heaton $6 million-plus per year for ”Everybody Loves Raymond”
? The Rock $5.5 million for ”The Scorpion King”
? Reese Witherspoon $4?5 million for ”Sweet Home Alabama”
? Mary Hart More than $5 million annually to host ”Entertainment Tonight” for five more years
? Colin Farrell $5 million for ”The Farm”

$1-4 MILLION

? Bill O’Reilly An average of more than $4 million annually to host Fox News Channel’s ”The O’Reilly Factor” for six years
? Rob Lowe and Martin Sheen Around $2.2 million each per year for ”The West Wing” (around $100,000 per episode; 22-episode season)
? Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, and Bradley Whitford $1.54 million each per year for ”The West Wing” ($70,000 per episode; 22-episode season)
? Julia Stiles $4 million for ”A Guy Thing”
? Owen Wilson $2 million for ”Zoolander”
? Alyssa Milano $1.76 million per year for ”Charmed” ($80,000 per episode)
? LL Cool J More than $1 million for ”Rollerball”