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Million Dollar Babes Julia Roberts vs. Cameron Diaz by Steve Ryfle
They're the most famous and most well paid women in Hollywood. They always work with the A-list of the A-list. Their movies always make money, their faces always sell magazines. They're Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, Hollywood's two-woman $20 Million Club.Roberts, of course, needs no intro. She's been America's sweetheart, as the cliché goes, for as long as anyone can recall. She's an Oscar winner and has proven herself in serious dramas to go with the romantic comedies. Diaz is a few years younger, a few years newer, but still an old pro. She's got a winning combo of comic timing, karate-kick action and serious acting chops. Someday soon, another actress will crack the $20 mil ceiling (according to recent reports in the trades, Nicole Kidman isn't far behind), but for now Roberts and Diaz are at the top of a very expensive heap. They once went toe-to-toe, so to speak, in "My Best Friend's Wedding," but settled for a draw. Here's the tale of the tape for a heavyweight rematch Don King would be proud of: 
Pix of Cameron Diaz | | 
Pix of Julia Roberts | | Cameron Diaz Vital Statistics: Real Name: Cameron Michelle Diaz Nicknames: Cami, Skeletor Birthplace: San Diego, Ca. Birth date: August 30, 1972 Height: 5'9"
| | Julia Roberts Vital Statistics: Real Name: Julie Fiona Roberts Nicknames: Jules Birthplace: Smyrna, Georgia Birth date: October 28, 1967 Height: 5'9"
| | Beginnings: Was contracted by the Elite modeling agency at age 16, then left home (with her parent's blessing, mind you) to travel 'round the globe pursuing her career, and soon she was earning $2,000 per shoot and was posing for Mademoiselle, Calvin Klein and more. Cast as the female lead in "The Mask" for her good looks and, despite no acting experience whatsoever, was really good in the movie. | | Beginnings: As a kid, she dreamed of being a veterinarian, then a journalist -- and then, after high school, she moved to New York and did some modeling. We can thank her older brother Eric (who was great in "Star 80" and "The Coca-Cola Kid") for piquing Julia's interest in acting. Her first role was in the 1989 western "Blood Red," in which Eric also appears. | | Family: Her father, Emilio Diaz is Cuban-American and worked as an oil foreman; her mother, Billie, is Anglo-German-Native American. They were cool parents, taking Cameron and her older sister Chimene to parties. Cameron was a rocker in her teens, and her mom took her to her first Van Halen concert. | | Family: Her father, Walter Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, actor and writer, and her mom Betty was a church secretary and sometimes actress. Her parents divorced when Julia was five, and her father died when she was 10; Julia's mother was later remarried to Michael Motes, Julia's stepfather. | | Boy Toy: As everybody knows, Diaz and ex-boy-bander Justin Timberlake are an item. Everybody knows this, in part, because of a much-covered lawsuit filed by two paparazzi who say Cameron and Justin assaulted them when they tried to snap a few Polaroids. The $20M girl and her man have filed a counter-suit, saying it ain't like that. | | Camera Man: Julia has been married to cinematographer Danny Moder for two years. In November, she gave birth to twin babies, Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter. | | Tab fodder: This isn't the first time Diaz has had trouble with shutterbugs. A photographer who took topless shots of Cameron a decade ago was accused in 2003 of trying to blackmail her. | | Tab fodder: Her marriage to Moder came as a shock to the tabloid nation, most of which had been convinced she would marry actor Benjamin Bratt, her steady beau for several years before she dumped him in 2001. | | Significant Exes: She was engaged to Jared Leto; shacked up with video producer Carlos De La Torre; went out with Matt Dillon; linked to Leonardo DiCaprio. | | Significant Exes: Get in line, boys. Julia was famously married to Lyle Lovett from 1993 to 1995; before and after that, she was engaged to Kiefer Sutherland and Dylan McDermott, lived with Liam Neesen, and dated Matthew Perry and Daniel Day-Lewis, among others. | | | Rising Star: This non-actress honed her acting skills in a series of under-the-radar flicks like "The Last Supper," "Feeling Minnesota" (with Keanu Reeves), "She's the One" (with Ed Burns) and "Head Above Water" (with Harvey Keitel). In 1996, she was named Female Star of Tomorrow by the National Association of Theater Owners. From there, it was all uphill -- and fast. | | Rising Star: Her big break, as they say, came when Roberts was cast in "Steel Magnolias" (1989) and earned a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Then came her turn as Vivian, the good-hearted ho in "Pretty Woman" (1990), and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. After a string of hits, she took 1992 off, then returned for an $8 million paycheck (most ever for an actress back then) in "The Pelican Brief" (1992). | | Leading Men: She's also worked opposite Ben Stiller, Al Pacino, Ewan MacGregor, Tom Cruise, Leo DiCaprio, and Mike Myers. | | Leading Men: Roberts has shared top billing with Brad Pitt, Hugh Grant, George Clooney, John Cusack, Jude Law, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Nic Nolte, and almost every A-list actor in the biz. | | Kid Stuff: Voiced the homely ogre Princess Fiona in the "Shrek" flicks. | | Kid Stuff: Spielberg cast her as Tinkerbell in his ungainly version of Peter Pan, "Hook" (1991). | | Grown-up Stuff: Cameron is also a capitalist and entrepreneur: she owns a Miami restaurant called Bambu. | | Grown-up Stuff: She's stumped for UNICEF and has visited poverty-stricken countries to promote child welfare, and helped raise money to fight Rett Syndrome, a disease affecting young girls. | | Oh, Puh-leeze: She's superstitious and has her rumored eccentricities. Like this one: she only washes her face with Evian spring water. | | Oh, Puh-leeze: She always gets her makeup applied while lying flat on her back. She says it gives her face a more relaxed look. Um, okay. | | Life is Beautiful: People, Empire, Stuff and other magazines routinely name her one of the sexiest women in the world. | | Life is Beautiful: Her name is never left off the lists of most sexy, intriguing, powerful, beautiful, and so on, as ranked by the luminaries at People, E! Television, and other pop culture watchdogs. | | Quotable: "I didn't realize ["The Mask"] was a fairly large film that I was a part of. Halfway through I was going, 'Is there any place that my mom and dad can see this film?' And they're going, 'Cameron, at the theaters.' I had no idea. Durrrrr. I'm blonde. I'm allowed." | | Quotable: "How do you define a superstar? I mean, what does that mean? In walking around, what am I meant to do that makes me a superstar? I mean, I still have to buy toilet paper, you know?" |
Syndicated Columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith are featured in over 100 print publications and other media outlets with cutting edge celebrity news and insider scoop. Have a burning showbiz question? Ask those in-the-know, Marilyn and Stacy, and get the real skinny daily in their " Ask BeckSmith" column on CompuServe and Netscape.
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