Image Credit: Max AbadianPower rankings — they’re so hot right now. Forbes unveiled its “Power Women” list yesterday, ranking the 100 most powerful women in the world. Coming in in the top slot: Michelle Obama. Oprah was ranked at No. 3, Lady Gaga at No. 7, Beyoncé at No. 9, and Ellen DeGeneres at No. 10. That puts them all ahead of Nancy Pelosi (No. 11), Sonia Sotomayor (No. 19), and the heads of state of Australia (No. 58), Finland (No. 62), Ireland (No. 64), Argentina (No. 68), Iceland (No. 80), Costa Rica (No. 83), and Liberia (No. 86). I was a little surprised to see Sarah Palin outrank Queen Elizabeth — 16 to 41! — but okay.
Beyond the top 10, the entertainment and television news industries are really well represented: Angelina Jolie (No. 21), Katie Couric (No. 22), Madonna (No. 29), Chelsea Handler (No. 33), Heidi Klum (No. 39), Meredith Vieira (No. 40), Sarah Jessica Parker (No. 45), Diane Sawyer (No. 46), Stephenie Meyer (No. 49), Rachel Maddow (No. 50), Suze Orman (No. 61), Gisele Bundchen (No. 72), Rachael Ray (No. 78), and Martha Stewart (No. 99, just squeaked by) all made the cut.
The full list is here, and it’s actually a pretty interesting read. (And when you’re finished scanning the list, check out a teaser for EW’s own Power List, in this week’s issue.) Who do you think they missed, PopWatchers?
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This week’s cover: The Power List returns!
Spectacularly offensive to anyone who’s not an entertainer. Queen Elizabeth, the monarch of UK, Canada, and Australia is below Beyonce? Forbes, PLEASE. And it is incredibly US-centric: Sarah Palin has enraptured half of America, but everyone outside your borders recognizes her as a useless fame-wh*re.. just like Forbes magazine apparently!
Even within the realm of entertainment this list is pretty bad. I mean Chelsea Handler over Diane Sawyer, Rachel Maddow and even Rachael Ray? Really?!
It’s a Gaga world and we just live in it.
Nobody cares about this crap.
Yes Elizabeth II is monarch of the UK, but in truth she and the rest of the Royals are just pets. Their duties are mainly ceremonial and wield no actual power.
Yeah with all of the land, money and political clout the Queen of Britain etc has she’s at 411. Hmmmm I smell bull……………
Not powerful enough to sway Congress to overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Exactly what power does GaGa have? These lists are always a joke and should never be taken seriously.
Gaga has gone to many HRC campaigns, spoken out against gay bashing and other issues. Also, when she says something, people listen. That makes her powerful. But yes, just because Lady Gaga is number 7 on this list does not mean Gaga can take over the world and enslave all humans. It’s just a list.
It’s really sad that plopping meat on one’s head makes one powerful.
And yet none of the GLBT issues she’s pushed for have succeeded. DADT was a spectacular flame-out. I’d hardly call that power.
Uhm. Both Madonna and Cindi Lauper have spoken out about gay rights way before Her. Even Boy George did back in 1983 when Culture Club won a Grammy, “America, you know a good drag queen when you see one”. Gaga is not all that, she has just added to the chain.
The reason all of these things are failing is because our government is only put together by hate. Gaga is trying to change that, and it looks like she may be the only one that is trying to save our country from falling under the cruel hand of hate. Lady Gaga is one of the most powerful women in the world today, she has started a Love revolution and if you are too ignorant to see that then maybe you need to go back to school and get some education.
Hey Shane, with your quotation regarding Gaga’s Love revolution and the ignorance of us uneducated masses who don’t see it…..you can count me out.
But I love how her fans don’t see the manipulation they are being subjected to! haaaaa She thanks you for drinking the kool aid.
INFLUENCE. Is there a greater power?
Chelsea Handler had to be the biggest surprise to me. Sarah Palin was the biggest disappointment. She doesn’t belong on the list but I understand why.
Shows that Forbes is a joke. The german chancellor (who is running the EU for the most part) is the most powerful person in the world. Hands down. This list she is 5. So the wife of the president is more powerful than her. EW should just consider this a throw away list.
This is a good point. Most of these people have little real power. They may have a small amount of ability to get people talking but mostly that doesn’t result in action. Merkel can send people off to their deaths – that’s power.
you are very right
It’s a shame the so called journalists confuse power with power,it should have been aptly named most popular women.
sorry,meant to say power with popularity,ha,ha.
I’m sorry, but how are Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Stephany Meyer on this list but no JK Rowling? JK Rowling has had a much bigger impact on the world than those three! And the fact that Sarah Palin is on the list at all is just wrong.
Funny Madonna didn’t even release an album, tour or do much of anything this year and she’s 29th while her overexposed copycat Lady GaGa couldn’t sit down for a minute this year and she’s 7th
This ‘list’ leaves me sad and baffled. I wrote a number of detailed responses and then erased them all. This is just going to have to go under the category of WTF???? for me and I’ll leave it at that.
If Lady GaGa is really the 7th most powerful woman in the world, we are in much worse trouble than we originally thought.
Forbes is just stupid. Gaga has more power than Pelosi? Merkel not on the list? This is random nonsense, nothing more. Forbes is stupid.
People should be Careful the way they criticize others, those in FORBES Team are Humans & can’t satisfy everybody”s Choice.
Congrate to My Lady GaGa but Beyonce should be top before GaGa, u know i’m a Big Fan to Beyonce.
Its all good!
About the Entertainment Weekly mag
younger actors..Why did you put
the worst movie for Ben when we all know that it was Reindeer Games. Not Gigli.
This certainly takes a lot of credibility away from either A)Forbes or B) Women. Either women are falling seriously behind men, or Forbes has no clue. How does Beyonce or Lady Gaga carry any power?? They are not decision makers and most people over 21 years old realize that they are just for show. Really really embarrassing list.