Best, Worst Celeb Do-Gooders

Talk show maven edges out Tiger, Jolie

(NEWSER) - Forbes ranks the 100 most powerful celebs of 2008 (complete with tweens), and Oprah leads the pack for the second year running. Stars are judged on the size of their paychecks and media clout, including their showing on the Internet. Here's how the A-listers stacked up:

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Tiger Woods
3. Angelina Jolie
4. Beyonce Knowles
5. David Beckham

Oprah, Bono and Michael Jordan are among the most influential celebs

(NEWSER) - Oprah is not just the queen of daytime talk shows. With her wide-ranging cultural, political and philanthropic interests, she's also the most influential celebrity in a new poll from E-Poll Market Research, Forbes reports. The top celeb honchos:

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Bono
3. Michael Jordan

UN goodwill ambassador visited survivors yesterday

(NEWSER) - Angelina Jolie's latest humanitarian mission: Haiti's earthquake victims. The actress and UN goodwill ambassador visited with survivors hospitalized in the neighboring Dominican Republic yesterday, and a UN rep says she is traveling to Haiti today, the AP reports. During yesterday's hospital visit Jolie, accompanied by a UN rep, "spoke with several children and a Haitian woman who recognized her and requested help," a hospital spokesperson says. More»

Annual list tracks most generous of 2009; Bill and Melinda Gates are 3rd

(NEWSER) - The recession took a bite out of charitable giving last year, but some very wealthy, very generous people kept their checkbooks open. Slate delivers its annual list of the 60 biggest donors in the country, who together came up with $4.2 billion in new commitments to charity last year. The top four: More»

Microsoft founder breaks 100K follower mark within 8 hours

(NEWSER) - Bill Gates joined Twitter yesterday, and within his first eight hours on the microblogging site, he gained 100,000 followers. Mashable calculated that to be about 12,500 followers per hour, or 208 per minute, making him about as popular as Oprah when she first joined. As of 8:15am, he was up to 172,748 followers—with the number climbing by the second. More»