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It’s no secret how much dough celebrities can command per movie or television episode. With so many successful films and TV shows, one has to wonder about the salaries these folks are working with. Here’s a look at the top earning entertainers of 2014.

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Forbes has released its list of highest earning actors for 2014 and, probably not surprising, Will Smith is on the list. Coming in at number nine, the Fresh Prince brought in $32 million in part, if you can believe it, for his work on the flop Another Earth. And he’s working behind the scenes on the new adaption of Annie starring Jamie Foxx and Quvenzhane Wallis.

Coming in second place is The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, seen above with his handsome self going to the Espys. He made $52 million with Hercules coming to theaters in the coming weeks and San Andreas, about an earthquake, coming in 2015.

He’s also sinking some of his millions into TV production, with the reality show The Hero and an upcoming HBO program called Ballers about football players. He’s a producer and star of the show.

But the man up top is none other than Robert Downey Jr. With $75 million (whew!), he’s making money hand over fist with the Iron Man character, who’s had three smash movies and was the lead character in The Avengers, which is the third-highest-grossing movie of all time. Iron Man 3 was the highest-grossing movie of 2013 with $1.2 billion at the box office. Forbes says he managed to negotiate a higher salary for himself for Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Rounding out the top five, in order, are Bradley Cooper ($46 million) for The Hangover movies, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle; Leonardo Di Capro ($39 million) for Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby; and Chris Hemsworth ($37 million!) for Thor and the upcoming Cyber.

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Are you surprised? You must have forgotten that “The Rock” graced the silver screen with two kick-butt films: Fast & Furious 6 and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Along with two other small movies, Dwayne Johnson drew in $1.3 billion at the box office, Forbes reports.

You would think Robert Downey, Jr. would have topped the list. After all, Iron 3 is this year’s highest grossing film. But that was also Downey’s only movie in 2013. Because of Johnson worked harder this year by starring in three additional films, “The Rock” wrestled him out of the No.1 spot.

Fast & Furious 6 alone pulled in $789 million in the global box office. The widely-popular movie franchise also helped Johnson’s co-stars — Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker — land a spot on Forbes‘ list in fourth and sixth place, respectively.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation reeled in $376 billion worldwide. Pain & Gain, alongside Mark Wahlberg, is Johnson’s third highest-grossing film this year with an $86 million box office draw.

Snitch, Johnson’s crime drama film, didn’t really appeal to audiences as it only nabbed $58 million at the box office. As for Empire State, an action film starring Liam Hemsworth — Miley Cyrus’ former lover — the movie went straight to DVD and Blu-Ray in September.

Along with scoring box office gold for riding around in fast cars, Diesel drew in $887 million for his work in Riddick, a sci-fi film.

After “The Rock” stands, of course, Robert Downey, Jr. in second place. Steve Carell, best known for his TV antics on The Office, brought home some big numbers with Despicable Me 2, The Way Way Back, and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. The only woman on the list, Sandra Bullock, rounds out the top five with Gravity and The Heat.

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Move over Denzel, John David Washington is hoping he’s the next celebrity in the Washington family.

John David, the oldest of the Washington children, is the newest addition to the HBO pilot, Ballers, according to Indiewire.com. The show which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson” is a show about the lives of retired athletes living it up in Miami. While they’ve yet to release Johnon’s role, he’ll surely be the main character.

Washington will play Ricky, a very spiritual yet extremely competitive athlete.  At least one part of the role should come easy to him: Washington is a football player. He played for Morehouse College and went on to briefly play in the NFL and the UFL.  Acting is his latest venture.

The show will also co-star Donovan Carter, a former college football player, as one of the football players.

Ballers is executive produced by Mark Wahlberg (whose made an incredible name for himself in Hollywood) and the script will be written by Entourage’s Stephen Levinson.

The show sounds like it could be interesting. Not many people get their start in acting doing an HBO show so John David better be ready…and he better be good. Surely Daddy Denzel has been helping him out because as a living legend in the industry, he knows his son will be closely compared to him.

HBO is hoping to start filming later this fall. Would you watch?

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From Essence

The first of many summer action-packed thrillers hits theaters Friday. Pain & Gain, starring Anthony Mackie, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, follows three bodybuilders as they join forces to kidnap, rob and attempt to murder a wealthy Miami business man.

ESSENCE.com caught up with Mackie to chat about his new buff-body crime thriller, how he got into shape and what it was like to loosen up on camera.

On preparing for his role as Adrian and whether or not he talked to the “real” Adrian, who is character is based on:

Not at all. Thinking about it, the dude is on death row. There are a lot of aspects to his personal life that I didn’t want to get in to. I feel like him being a real guy in a movie like this wasn’t so important. Not too many people know about this story, let alone know about him. I felt like if I captured the true essence of what the writer gave me on the page, then I would be able to tell the story and do him justice.

On whether or not he’s workout obsessed:

I try to be. I try to go to the gym every morning for an hour, hour and a half. It’s just to keep myself in shape. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this movie. I took a four-year period when I was playing cops and stuff like that. So I drunk a lot of whiskey and ate a lot of beef and got fat.

His competitive spirit:

I met Mark before. He’s just a real down to earth cool dude. But I have this weird thing about me—I’m always overly competitive with men over six-feet tall. I don’t know why. [laughs] Every time I see a dude over six feet, I just want to be really aggressive and I’m five-foot-eleven. Whenever I have to look up at another man I want to bite him. I don’t know why! [laughs] Once I met Dwayne it was on like donkey kong.

It sounds like this was a fun movie to film.  You can check out the full interview over on Essence.com. Are you an Anthony Mackie fan? Will you be checking this one out (with all those fine men)?

I’m sure I’m not the only person who has no idea what the movie Pain and Gain is about starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Anthony Mackie, but has an outrageous urge to run to the movie theater to see it the minute it comes out this week. Why? Because of The Rock of course. Since he signed on for this movie, that man has gotten bigger in muscle mass, grown a very alluring mustache and beard combination and is nice and tan all of a sudden, and I’m not sure about you, but it’s doing something for me. So much so that I felt the need to do another Evening Eye Candy slideshow for the brotha, who was one of the first pieces of candy we showed off back in 2011. And if this slideshow isn’t enough for you, I’d encourage you to do like me (his new stan) and become a follower of his new Instagram page, @therock. You won’t be disappointed!

As the next Presidential election draws nigh in November, the two most popular candidates, Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney have been paving the campaign trail. With election year comes slander, controversy and your occasional celebrity political rants. Politics met entertainment with the latest celebrity rant, coming from Nicki Minaj, in which she rapped in vote of Republican Mitt Romney. This was a shock to fans and celebrity bloggers everywhere, but Nicki is not the only popular African-American face that has shown favor to the GOP.  Here is a list of some African-American celebrities who have supported or are affiliated with the Republican party:

Source: USA Today

LL Cool J

LL Cool J attended the Republican Convention in 2004 and has been a supporter of Republican New York governor George Pataki back in 2002. He has never officially stated his political party.

Nope, the saying “mmm mmm good” is not just for Campbell’s Soup. Some of the sexiest black brothas in Hollywood are hotter than that bowl of Chicken Noodle. You would think that as time goes on they would cool down just a bit, but with some men, the older they are, the more finer they get…Here are some of the sexiest black males in Hollywood who are all in their 40s:

Source: zimbio.com

LL Cool J

It was the 1980s and the ladies loved Cool James. Well guess what? It’s the year 2012 and the ladies STILL love Cool James. How can you not though? With those juicy lips and those hard muscles, at age 44, Cool James does not seem to be cooling down anytime soon.

A lot of celebrities who speak out about their political views are pretty liberal.  After all, actors and musicians are typically creative- minded which tend to lean towards Liberal views. However, that doesn’t mean that all celebs are registered Democrats.  There are actually more Republican supporters that you might think.  Take a look at these 7 celebs who lean to the right.

No, I don’t think homeboy has a new movie coming out. Nor a book, a music video appearance, a magazine cover, or anything of the sorts. He’s just fine, and I for one, feel like talking about him for a minute. When I saw a picture of him this evening I was reminded how hot this man looks, from that smile, to that body to…just everything. The 39-year-old former wrestler and action star  (who is black Nova Scotian and Samoan if you were ever wondering) has been my imaginary boo on the side (yes, I have many) since I was an undercover WWE fan back in the day. And there’s something about a guy with huge biceps and triceps that can most definitely keep you warm at night that just is too hot! So, to celebrate his steaminess, have yourself a look through the gallery, I’ve provided a generous amount of photos, and I’d probably turn the air on for a minute…(*wink*)