Star magazine has ranked the 20 most despised, anger-inducing, why-won't-they-just-go-away celebrities of the moment, beginning with woman-beater and Britto collaborator Chris Brown and leading up to Gwyneth Paltrow, whose tone-deaf-hippie-meets-Martha-Stewart-meets-a-fairy-princess-with-unlimited-disposable-income persona earned her the number one spot on the list.
There are plenty of names on Star's ranking that probably make you cringe: Kardashian, Swift, Lohan, Heigl. But don't feel too bad for any of them. It pays to be hated in Hollywood.
Two things unite the people on this list: They are all celebrities in Hollywood, and they are all disgustingly rich. Paltrow's net worth is an estimated $40 million. That's separate from her husband, Chris Martin of Coldplay, who is worth another $60 million. It's money she earned through roles in movies that America paid to see, through endorsements for advertisers that paid her to make America like their products, through Goop, the website and newsletter she "curates" and which has inspired countless mocking responses -- but still drew 150,000 subscribers just a year after its launch. For a person so reviled, we sure do love giving Gwyneth Paltrow our money.
That's the story for just about everyone on Star's list. Madonna packs arenas on tour. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift? Same. Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, somehow ranked in the middle of the list instead of at the top, have lived off their own personas for years, pushing perfumes, clothing lines, and their own self-obsessed TV shows -- and people keep buying all of it.
These aren't the most hated celebrities in Hollywood. They're the celebrities America most loves to hate -- or, in some cases, the celebrities who've inspired a small but vocal minority to criticize their every move. If we really, truly disliked these people, we'd stop giving them our money, advertisers would take notice and stop giving them theirs too, and we'd all live our lives blissfully ignorant of what artisanally crafted toothbrush Gwyneth Paltrow thinks we should use or what pregnant Kim Kardashian wore to the airport this morning.
But that won't happen, because -- admit it, America -- you love this shit. It's why you're reading a story about hated Hollywood celebrities in the first place.
Here's Star's full list:
20. Chris Brown
19. Jesse James
18. Taylor Swift
17. Shia LaBeouf
16. Lindsay Lohan
15. Angelina Jolie
14. Jay Leno
13. Ashton Kutcher
12. LeAnn Rimes
10 and 11. Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian
9. Anne Hathaway
8. Justin Bieber
7. Madonna
6. Matt Lauer
5. Katherine Heigl
4. John Mayer
3. Jennifer Lopez
2. Kristen Stewart
1. Gwyneth Paltrow
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