Beyonce and Jay-Z Named Entertainment's Top-Earning Duo

For the second consecutive year, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have been named Forbes' top-earning couple in entertainment. The duo combined to earn $122 million between July 2008 and July 2009, beating out Hollywood power pairs like Brangelina, the Beckhams and TomKat. While Jigga carried the financial weight in their relationship by a narrow margin on the Forbes' inaugural list last year, Beyoncé easily out-earned her husband this time around, grossing $87 million to Jay-Z's $35 million. On last year's list, when Jay-Z's 360 deal with Live Nation was factored in, the pair earned $162 million, with Jay pulling in $82 million.

Jay-Z joins Beyoncé onstage at her I Am ... tour opener: check out photos.

Combined, Jay-Z and Beyoncé nearly doubled the amount earned by Forbes' Number Two couple, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, who Forbes reports made $67 million thanks largely to Ford's $65 million paycheck for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie came in third, while a pair of technically semi-retired music artists and their respective partners, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith and Victoria and David Beckham, came in fourth and fifth.

Other music-related couples to make the list include Coldplay's Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow, who combined for $33 million, new Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi with $36 million and "the Jay-Z and Beyoncé of country music," Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

Get a look at more entertainment power couples.

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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