Kristen Stewart is Youngest and Highest Paid Actress on Forbes’ List of Highest Grossing Actresses

Forbes has put out their annual list of the highest-paid actors and actresses in Hollywood, and not only does Kristen Stewart top the list by half a million dollars, she’s also the youngest actress on it by sixteen years.

Which should come as no surprise to anyone who remembers the absolutely astronomical amounts of money the Twilight series has made. I haven’t read the Twilight books, because nobody has managed to say anything to me that makes me want to read them (this is a situation I’m also in with Lost and Game of Thrones, before you start telling me how I’ve made a good decision), but I have watched a couple of the movies recently. And what they left me with, after boring me to tears despite the comedy stylings of Rifftrax laid over them, was grudging respect. Yes, respect.

Because the Twilight movies are like Honey Badger. They don’t give a shit. You aren’t prepared to accept Bella and Edward as destined lovers at first sight, and the idea that every relationship decision they make is perfect and unquestionable? You aren’t prepared to be delighted by a lingering shot of them staring into each other’s faces happily? Well, too bad. The movie will make no attempts to convince you and continue on its merry way of creating hours and hours of fan service for people who are in love with the novels. The fact is, the Twilight movies are for Twilight fans, and nobody else.

I might not like it, but I can respect that. So yeah, when Kristen Stewart is the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, that’s super interesting. That’s an actress who has built a fortune on starring in a story with a female lead aimed 100% at women and fans rather than a wide audience. In a perfect situation, it’d be a story that didn’t have gender themes that I find to be shockingly regressive, but we can’t have everything.

In that spirit, I should also mention that there’s a first full trailer for the final installment of the Twilight movie series. So Twi-hards, get excited: it’s almost here. Those on the opposite side of the argument, get excited: it’s almost over.

It was released today in honor of Edward Cullen’s canonical eleventy-first birthday. Edward, I think it’s time Gandalf had a talk with you about that ring.

(via Forbes and Deadline.)

(PS. Actually it would be more accurate to say that I’m perfectly willing to read A Song of Ice and Fire, except it falls under my rule of reading fantasy series: If it’s longer than three books, I can wait until the author is done to read them all.)