Comedian Vince Vaughn has topped a list of Hollywood stars giving studios the best returns on their investments. In an “Entertainment All Stars Special Issue”, Forbes magazine has looked at which actors provide the best payback and Vaughn was No. 1, with his films earning $14.73 for every dollar he was paid. Why? Well, until recently he wasn’t paid the mega-bucks of other Hollywood stars and the films he starred in, like “Wedding Crashers” and “The Break-Up,” had modest budgets but good box office returns.

A-listers Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and George Clooney also looked good in the list because of their work in “Ocean’s Twelve” and “Ocean’s Thirteen”, as they all took pay cuts to appear in the heist movies. 

Forbes said it compiled the list by looking at a star’s last three films that opened wide before Jan.1 2008  and were made in the past five years — and were not animated. It then took half of each film’s box office income and added the first three months of wholesale DVD revenues, subtracted the budget,  and used the star’s gross income to work out payback.                    

 Here is a list of the top payback stars:

1. Vince Vaughn - $14.73                                       2. Tobey Maguire - $13.44

3. Julia Roberts $13.19                                            4. Brad Pitt $12.73

5. Naomi Watts $12.16                                            6. Matt Damon $12.16

7. George Clooney $11.56                                       8. Jennifer Aniston $10.48

9. Hugh Jackman $9.90                                        10.  Ben Stiller $9.50

You could almost hear the collective groan from reporters and commentators the world over when they learned the names of Angelina Jolie’s twins. Pencils, mine included, were sharpened for stories of outlandish celebrity baby names. OK, Jolie and partner Brad Pitt didn’t go for “Jack and Jill” exactly, but Vivienne Marcheline was remarkably restrained for the bizarre-baby-name age, and Knox Leon was only slightly more whacky.

Nicole Kidman had got people nicely warmed up with “Sunday Rose” for her recently-arrived daughter, who, incidentally, was born on a Monday.

The Daily Telegraph caught the mood with a tongue-in-cheek commentary saying Jolie had “failed the name game”, calling her choices “shockingly conventional.”

Celebrity baby name lists remind us of glories past, for which many of us secretly pine. Remember Princess Tiaamii (daughter of model Jordan and Peter Andre)? Or Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily (Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence) and Jermajesty (Jermaine Jackson and Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza)? Angelina, we deserved better.

Watch out all you Red Carpet pros on Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and other celebrity TV shows, this September there will be a new face on Tinseltown’s glamour scene. And although that amateur may not know what the heck they are doing, he or she just might be aiming for your job. Remember, it’s not hard losing a coveted slot on the Red Carpet. Just ask Joan Rivers.

People.com and YouTube are unveiling a new channel on the video Web site dedicated to celebrity content provided by People.com. To kick off the channel, People.com and YouTube, along with cosmetics company Revlon, are launching a contest where one ”Red Carpet Reporter” will be picked to interview celebrities at a star-filled event in September.

They promise the winner “a whirlwind two days in Los Angeles” with hair and makeup by Revlon, a clothing allowance and  ”VIP entry into exclusive events,” according to a statement. And to wrap it all up, the winner has to work — on the glitzy Red Carpet, of course. Hey, it’s a tough job but somebody’s…  Ahh, you know the rest.

The initial contest kicks off on July 10 and runs through July 21. Contestants must submit a two- to four-minute video of them interviewing their family or friends. Ten finalists will be picked, and People.com and YouTube users will vote for a winner who will be announced on Aug. 27.

The new People.com celebrity YouTube channel, which will feature video, photos and star interviews, can be found at www.youtube.com/people. Submissions for the contest can be made at www.youtube.com/redcarpetreporter or www.people.com/youtube.

Filming love scenes with Angelina Jolie would be a dream job for millions of men around the world — but her co-star in “Wanted” is not one of them. James McAvoy told In Touch Weekly that kissing Jolie was “not very nice”.

“I can tell you what it was like to kiss her on a film set: It was awkward, sweaty and not very nice,” said the Scottish actor. “There was angst involved in that, as always. I don’t think Brad Pitt felt threatened for one moment.”

Jolie and McAvoy both did find real love on the set –  Jolie with Brad Pitt when filming “Mr and Mrs Smith” and McAvoy met his wife Anne-Marie Duff when they played a couple on a BBC drama called “Shameless!”

It may seem a little premature to be discussing who may win this year’s coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes film festival. The festival doesn’t start until Wednesday, there are 22 movies in competition and only a handful of them has actually been screened to critics and reporters.

That does not stop the speculation. France’s Le Monde newspaper has an interesting point — that Steven Soderbergh’s four-and-a-half-hour epic “Che”, only just completed in time to qualify for the main competition, would not be the first “last-minute” entry to walk away with the main award.

In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola brought an early cut of “Apocalypse Now” to the French Riviera and, although it differed from the version most viewers would have seen, it won. On the festival’s Web site it is listed as “Apocalypse Now (A Work in Progress”). In 1981, Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s “Man of Iron” made it to Cannes despite reluctance on the part of the Communist authorities. It also won the Golden Palm.

There is comfort for those who come away from the glitzy festival empty-handed, however. Last year, the Coen Brothers’ “No Country For Old Men” was overlooked by the jury yet went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Seems Lindsay Lohan’s showbiz mom, Dina, is having some last minute second thoughts about putting her second daughter Ali, 14, into the limelight.
    Ali and Dina are starring in an upcoming E! reality show that will chronicle Dina’s efforts to put her younger daughter on the path to fame (or should that be shame?) enjoyed by big sister Lindsay.
    “It’s scary because I did it with Lindsay and got her to the level of success that she is at and with the tabloids…so with Ali now it’s scary…they are already making things up about her,” Dina Lohan told Access Hollywood  in an interview.
    Ali’s big Hollywood debut comes a year after Lindsay Lohan made headlines for all the wrong reasons — she wrecked her car, served time in jail for drunk driving and cocaine possession, and had two stints in rehab.
    Lindsay, who shot to fame at age 11, was also attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings before the age of 21 — the legal age for drinking in the United States.
    You have to wonder why Dina didn’t think twice before signing that reality show contract.