Guinness puts Brangelina at top of Hollywood power league

Screen idols Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have moved to the top of the Hollywood power league toppling Tom Cruise and Jennifer Aniston, Guinness World Records said on Sunday.

The power couple, collectively dubbed Brangelina, were judged to have hit the pinnacle of power by a combination of Internet searches, press stories and earnings, the lexicon of the world’s most weird and wacky said in its latest edition.

But while Pitt and Jolie bask in their fame and power, they are not the most searched people on the Internet.

That dubious distinction goes to fallen pop princess Britney Spears whose erratic behaviour helped her take back the crown from Paris Hilton.

It is a far cry from Spears’ early record-grabbing career which included best-selling teenage artist and best-selling album in the United States by a female artist — although the three MTV awards she picked up last week may mark a turnaround.

Elsewhere in the stellar firmament section of the 2009 edition actor Samuel L. Jackson tops the league of highest grossing actors with the 68 films he has taken part in over the years taking $7.42 billion (4.1 billion pounds) at the box office.

Also very much in the money director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp have become the most lucrative Hollywood movie partnership having grossed $986 million from six films including Edward Scissorhands and most recently Sweeney Todd.

With yet another movie in the Bond franchise about to hit the screens, Guinness World Records said the 21 already out there make the series the highest grossing in history with takings of $4.49 billion since 1962.

And while Lost become the most downloaded television show of all time, it is ousted from the position of most popular TV show by the U.S. show House, starring English actor Hugh Laurie.