Entertainment News - ABC News Radio

• Jennifer Lopez Tops "Forbes'" 100 Most Powerful Celebs List
  

  Kevin Winter/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Forbes magazine has released its annual list of The World's Most Powerful Celebrities, and American Idol's Jennifer Lopez tops the list for the first time ever.
  
  According to Forbes, once Lopez landed the American Idol judging job, it revived her career and gave her a platform to build her empire.  She now has big endorsement deals with L'Oreal and Gillette, a clothing line at Kohl's, a fragrance line, and another show, Q'Viva!, with her ex-husband Marc Anthony.

  She has a strong social media presence, with 12 million Facebook fans and 6.6 million Twitter followers, and she's reportedly earning $20 million for her second season on Idol.
  
  Oprah Winfrey is in the number two slot, with pop sensation Justin Bieber rounding out the top three.
  
  The rankings were determined by money earned and fame. 

  Forbes defines fame as "media visibility in print, television, radio and online, plus social media power," which the magazine measures by looking at a celebrity’s presence on Facebook and Twitter.  Money earned was determined only by dollars earned between May 1, 2011 and May 1, 2012.
  
  Other celebrities who made the Forbes list:
  
  #7 -- Kim Kardashian
  #9 -- Tom Cruise
  #10-- Steven Spielberg
  #12 -- Tiger Woods
  #13 -- Angelina Jolie
  #20 -- Tyler Perry
  #22 -- Jennifer Aniston
  #28 -- Brad Pitt
  #29 -- Ryan Seacrest
  #34 -- Ellen DeGeneres

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• "Marvel's The Avengers" Becomes Highest-Grossing Movie of the Year
  

  The Walt Disney Company/Marvel Comics(LOS ANGELES) -- It was only a matter of time, but Marvel's The Avengers is now the biggest movie of the year to date.
  
  Through Tuesday, the superhero film has earned $389.5 million at the domestic box office, according to Hollywood.com.  The total eclipses that of The Hunger Games, which raked in $387.9 million.
  
  The Avengers currently ranks ninth all-time at the worldwide box office and 13th all-time at the domestic box office.  It has earned $1.036 billion globally.

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• Reports: Jennifer Lopez Leaving "American Idol"
  

  Theo Wargo/WireImage for Tommy Hilfiger(LOS ANGELES) -- Earlier this week on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jennifer Lopez said she doesn't know if she'll return to American Idol next season.  There are now multiple reports claiming she will in fact leave the Fox competition.
  
  A source tells E! News that Lopez is "just too busy" to continue with Idol. 

  Similarly, an insider who spoke to Us Weekly says, "There is just too much going on for her right now."
  
  Lopez told Ellen DeGeneres this week that she is unsure of her Idol future in part because she has four-year-old twins to consider.  She also has a summer tour with Enrique Iglesias on the horizon.
  
  Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is keeping his fingers crossed that Lopez will commit to another season of the show.

  He tells TMZ.com, "We want her back.  I want her back."

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• "The Dictator" Director Denies Film Is Offensive to Arab-Americans
  

  Paramount Pictures(NEW YORK) -- Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy, The Dictator, has irked some Arab-American groups who feel his character, a fictional North African dictator named Adm. Gen. Aladeen, casts an unflattering light on them.
  
  For example, Nadia Tonova, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities, tells E! News, "I have not seen the film, but based on the trailer and interviews that I have seen him do in character, it really seems to be that it's perpetuating a negative stereotype against Arabs and therefore Arab-Americans."
  
  Tonova previously criticized Cohen after he appeared on the Oscars red carpet as Aladeen and pretended to spill the ashes of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il onto Ryan Seacrest.
  
  The director of the film, Larry Charles, rejects the notion that the character is offensive to Arab-Americans.

  He tells ABC News Radio that Aladeen was inspired by several past dictators, such as Moammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il, Augusto Pinochet and Idi Amin.

  "There's a wide range historically of dictators that you can draw from and they share many personality traits.  It's not an ethnic thing.  It's a personality disorder, in a sense," he says.

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• "Two and a Half Men" Moving to Thursdays, CBS Announces
  

  Sonja Flemming/CBS(NEW YORK) -- TV's highest-rated network is keeping its primetime lineup mostly intact for the 2012-2013 season.
  
  CBS confirmed Wednesday that it is bringing back 19 of its series in the fall, though a couple of them are switching to new nights.  Two and a Half Men, which will retain Ashton Kutcher for a second season, will move from Mondays to Thursdays, where it will air after The Big Bang Theory.
  
  The Simon Baker drama The Mentalist will shift from Thursdays to Sundays.
  
  CBS will introduce four new shows in the fall:
  
  -- Elementary, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes drama starring Jonny Lee Miller as the legendary detective and Lucy Liu as a female version of his sidekick Watson.
  
  -- Vegas, a 1960s-era drama starring Dennis Quaid as a Las Vegas sheriff and Michael Chiklis as his gangster-rival.
  
  -- Made in Jersey, a drama about a young woman with street smarts who works at a New York law firm.
  
  -- Partners, a comedy about two guys whose "bromance" is tested when one of them gets engaged.
  
  CBS also has three midseason programs in the works: the cop drama Golden Boy, the comedy Friend Me, and the Mark Burnett reality series The Job.

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio