Will Smith’s appeal is that he looks comfortable in everything – comedies like Hitch, actioners like Bad Boys.

Stinking bags of bumheap like Hancock. Anything. And because of this – plus the way that Will Smith will promote his films by going on every single TV show and laughing so loudly and over-sincerely that he seems like an escaped murderer – that Forbes has called Will Smith the world’s most bankable star.

So congratulations to Will Smith. And equal congratulations Tatyana Ali from Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, who has been name as the 1,268th most bankable star. Keep living the dream Tatyana!

If you want to get a movie made in Hollywood, you need to get a star attached. And, by and large, the bigger star you get the more money you’ll make. And at the moment, if you want your movie to make more money than anything else, you need Will Smith.

Will Smith has it all – charm, charisma, drive, adequate rapping skills, suspiciously close links to the Church Of Scientology – and that’s why audiences love him. And because of this, Forbes magazine has just named Will Smith as the most banakable star in the world. How did Forbes get to this conclusion? Let’s ask it, shall we:

When ranking each actor, voters were asked to consider a number of elements regarding the actor’s participation in a film as they applied in the market at the time of the survey. Criteria used were: The amount of financing that flows to a project is significantly determined by the individual actor’s presence in a film.The individual actor’s presence in a film guarantees theatrical distribution. The individual actor’s presence significantly drives the film’s theatrical box-office performance…

This goes on, by the way. And on. We didn’t scroll to the end, but we think it might literally go on forever. Anyway, it’s just a fancy-schmancy way to say that Will Smith is powerful enough to get any movie he wants made, whether it’s an edgy superhero movie like Hancock, a thoughtfully conceptual drama like Seven Pounds or the worst idea in the entire history of mankind like the forthcoming Old Boy remake.

However, just because you can get a film made doesn’t necessarily mean that people will go and watch it. Other than Will Smith, the top five most bankable stars are Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio - who, between them, have recently made box office deadweights like The Changeling, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and Body Of Lies.

So, without wanting to play down Will Smith’s achievements here, it does seem that as soon as an actor gets a sniff off success, they suddenly seem to think that they can change the world by making movies about Serious Issues. It’s true with Will Smith, it’s true with Leonardo DiCaprio and – as soon as next year’s Paul Blart Saves Darfur movie is released – it’ll be true with Kevin James.

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