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Thursday December 20, 2018 16 x ENTERTAINMENT

FILMMAKER George Lucas’ “Star Wars” empire — the movie franchise, not Darth Vader’s fi ctional galactic gov-ernment — planted him fi rmly atop Forbes magazine’s third annual ranking of the wealthi-est U.S. celebrities, which was released Tuesday.

The net worth of the 74-year-old writer, director, producer and creator of the enduring space saga was estimated at US$5.4 billion, leading a list

that also included athletes, musicians and one wealthy illusionist.

Most of Lucas’ wealth came from the US$4.05 billion sale of the LucasFilm production company to Walt Disney in 2012, Forbes said.

The fi gures on the list are Forbes’ estimates based on the celebrities’ known holdings of real estate, art and shares of companies both public and pri-vate, as well as other assets and

estimated lifetime earnings.Fellow fi lmmaker Steven

Spielberg, who turned 72 Tues-day, came in second, with an estimated US$3.7 billion net worth. Spielberg’s career as a director, writer and producer spans some 50 years with cred-its that include “Jaws,” “ET,” “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”

The celebrities on the list have an estimated combined assets of US$18.7 billion, more than the

gross domestic product of Ice-land, Forbes said.

The richest female celebrity was Oprah Winfrey, 64, whose acting and media enterprises have yielded her a net worth of an estimated US$2.8 billion, third overall.

New to the Forbes list this year was Kylie Jenner, whose wealth from her Kylie Cosmetics made the 21-year-old the young-est ever self-made billionaire, the magazine said. (SD-Agencies)

Lucas is the wealthiest US celebrity, Forbes

U.S. actor Johnny Depp shared his experiences in acting with young Chinese actors and fi lm-makers in a masterclass held in Sanya, Hainan Province, on Saturday, one day before the clos-ing ceremony of the fi rst Hainan International Film Festival.

Depp, who played the malevo-lent wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the newly-released fantasy movie “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” is known for his portrayal of eccentric characters in fi lms like “Ed Wood,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” as well as his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. He has won 28 major fi lm-related awards and been nominated 33 times, includ-ing three Oscar nominations.

Observation is very important to an actor, Depp said. “One of my favorite things in the world is watching people,” Depp said. In his view, actors should be good observers, watching people’s body language and speaking style, and transforming this into their own abilities to progress in acting, and even in life.

Depp also explained his phi-losophy of acting — be respon-sible to the writers, directors, the audience and himself.

“The most important thing an actor can do for a fi lm is to provide choices,” Depp stressed. This meant that every take should be different. “I think you’re only doing half a job if you don’t deliver options to the director.”

(SD-Agencies)

Depp shares secrets to being a great actor

KOREAN Air Lines Co. said Tues-day it will raise refund penalties after K-pop fans got on a plane only to take pictures of a boy band on the fl ight, then demanded to get off before it departed and got refunds on their tickets.

The three fans of K-pop band Wanna One boarded the Seoul-bound Korean Air fl ight in Hong Kong on Saturday, ignored fl ight attendants’ requests to be seated and instead took pictures of the 11-member band.

“The fact is there were passen-gers who falsely checked in on the fl ight to see celebrities,” a Korean Air offi cial told Reuters.

The fans, in their 20s, got refunds on their tickets, exclud-ing some penalties, but the rest of the 360 passengers had to disembark and go through secu-

K-pop fans cause plane delay

rity screening again, delaying the fl ight by almost an hour, the company said in a statement.

The company said all passen-gers have to go through screen-ing again if some passengers get off voluntarily.

The airline will charge an addi-tional 200,000 won (US$177) from Jan. 1 to passengers who cancel international fl ights after going through the departure process. (SD-Agencies)

Wanna One

Johnny Depp

Oprah Winfrey is the wealthiest female U.S. celebrity on the list. File photos

George Lucas tops Forbes’ list of the wealthiest U.S. celebrities.

Steven Spielberg comes in second on the list.