[Photo caption - Photographs: from left, by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage, Jag Gundu/Getty Images, David Livingston/Getty Images, Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images, Jun Sato/WireImage, Steve Granitz/WireImage, Marcel Thomas/FilmMagic].
Vanity Fair’s list of 40 Top Hollywood Earning Stars sheds light on who people genuinely like, appearing in studio system as our guest commentary spotlight. Faces of the studio system we all appear to dig the most are:
40. Eddie Murphy
ACTOR (WME)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $13 MILLION (2009 rank: —)
$7.5 million: Tower Heist (fee for co-starring in action comedy with Ben Stiller)
$4 million: Shrek Forever After (back-end bonus)
$1.5 million: Older film revenue
39. Guy Ritchie
DIRECTOR (CAA)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $13.5 MILLION (2009 rank: —)
$7.5 million: Fee for directing untitled Sherlock Holmes sequel
$6 million: Sherlock Holmes (back-end for directing, based on worldwide gross of $523 million, and share of DVD and pay-TV revenue)
38. Shawn Levy
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER (WME)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $14 MILLION (2009 rank: 26)
$10 million: Real Steel (fee for directing and producing upcoming robotic action film starring Hugh Jackman)
$4 million: Older film revenue, mostly from the Night at the Museum franchise
37. Hugh Jackman
ACTOR (WME)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $14 MILLION (2009 rank: —)
$9 million: Real Steel (fee for starring in upcoming Shawn Levy movie)
$2 million: Butter (fee for starring in upcoming Weinstein Co. film)
$1.5 million: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (fee for starring in small art-house film)
$1.5 million: Older film revenue
36. Reese Witherspoon
ACTRESS (CAA)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $14.5 MILLION (2009 rank: 31)
$12 million: This Means War (fee for starring in upcoming romantic comedy directed by McG)
$2 million: Water for Elephants (fee for co-starring in upcoming drama with Robert Pattinson)
$500,000: Older film revenue
35. Tom Cruise
ACTOR, PRODUCER, WRITER (CAA)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $14.5 MILLION (2009 rank: —)
$12.5 million: Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol (fee for writing, producing, and starring in upcoming fourth M.I. movie)
$2 million: Older film revenue
[Oscar winning filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson courtesy of Horiwood.Com's Archives]
34. Shia LaBeouf
ACTOR (CAA)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $16 MILLION (2009 rank: 39)
$15 million: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (fee for starring in Michael Bay’s upcoming, third Transformers movie)
$1 million: Older film revenue
33. Katherine Heigl
ACTRESS, PRODUCER (Paradigm)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $16 MILLION (2009 rank: 25)
$15 million: One for the Money (fee for producing and starring in upcoming romantic cop comedy)
$1 million: Older film revenue
32. Martin Scorsese
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER (WME)
ESTIMATED 2010 EARNINGS: $17 MILLION (2009 rank: —)
$10 million: Hugo Cabret (fee for directing and producing upcoming 3-D adventure film starring Sacha Baron Cohen)
$3.5 million: Shutter Island (back-end for directing and producing, based on worldwide gross of $295 million, and share of DVD and pay-TV revenue)
$3.5 million: Older film revenue 
[Photographs: from left, by Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic, Jeffrey Ufberg/WireImage, Dave Hogan/Getty Images, Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage, Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic, Mark Sullivan/WireImage, Alex J. Berliner/BEImages, Jon Furniss/WireImage, Fergus McDonald/Getty Images]. Read the rest of this entry »
