Zack O'Malley Greenburg's Blog, page 37

The Life & Times Of ‘Hamilton’ Star Okieriete Onaodowan

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Okieriete “Oak” Onaodowan, who plays Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in the Broadway smash Hamilton, accumulated another honor for his résumé last winter: a spot in the FORBES 30 Under 30 Class of 2016.

Turns out he was just getting started. Over the past year, he’s been busy racking up Tony awards with his castmates, giving speeches at U.S. naturalization ceremonies and globetrotting to grace stages as far away as Jerusalem to talk about Hamil...

Michael Jackson’s Earnings: $825 Million In 2016

PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 31: Michael Jackson performs during the Halftime show as the Dallas Cowboys take on the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII at Rose Bowl on January 31, 1993 in Pasadena, California. The Cowboys won 52-17. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

The King of Popearned $825 million pretax over the past year, landing him the No. 1 spot on our Halloween-spooky list of highest-paid dead celebrities. Here’s a deeper look inside the numbers.

Real Name:Michael Jackson
Born: August 29,...

Elvis Presley’s Earnings: $27 Million In 2016

The King of Rock n’ Roll lives on. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Elvisearned $27 million over the past year–before taxes and spending–earning him the No. 4 spot on our Halloween-spooky list of highest-paid dead celebrities. Here’s a deeper look inside the numbers.

Real Name:Elvis Aron Presley
Born: January 8, 1935in Tupelo, Miss.
Died: August 16, 1977in Memphis, Tenn.
Age: 42
Cause:Heart Attack

The King of Rock n’ Roll still moves more than 1 million albums per year, most of them...

Prince’s Earnings: $25 Million In 2016

The Purple One: Still making plenty of green. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images).

Princeearned $25 million over the past year–before taxes and spending–earning him the No. 5 spot on our Halloween-spooky list of highest-paid dead celebrities. Here’s a deeper look inside the numbers.

Real Name: PrinceRogers Nelson
Born: June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Died: April 21, 2016 in Chanhassen, Minn.
Age: 57
Cause: Drug Overdose

The Purple One passed away while still at the top of his touring game...

Michael Jackson’s Sony/ATV Sale Gives Him Largest Celeb Payday Ever

The King of Pop’s 2016 earnings total is quite the thriller.(Photo:TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” famously depicts grisly ghouls from various tombs closing in to seal the doom of the song’s protagonists. Similarly, the real-lifeKing of Pop has risen from the grave, this time to clock a record $825 million payday.

The figure places Jackson atop this year’s Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities list—and also gives him the largest single-year payday by any entertainer,...

The Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities Of 2016

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While the Pearly Gates seemed to welcome an unusual amount of celebrities in the past year (David Bowie, Prince and Arnold Palmer, to name just three), the long-departed King of Pop had the time of his afterlife.

The March sale of Michael Jackson’s half of the Sony/ATV music publishing catalog, famous for its library of Beatles tunes, for $750 million puts him at the top of our annual ranking of the top-earning dead celebrities, an ironic finish given that m...

Highest-Paid Dead Celebs 2016: Preview And Contest

David Bowie: Just one of the great entertainers the world lost in 2016. (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Perhaps more than any year in recent memory, 2016 has seen the passing of a large number of beloved entertainers: David Bowie, Arnold Palmer, Prince, Jose Fernandez, Gene Wilder, Muhammad Ali, Glenn Frey and a host of others.

These influential figures’ lives have been tragically shortened, yet in mostcases, their careers will continue into the afterlife–some more than others, with a...

Hip-Hop Cash Kings 2016: Aftermath And Analysis

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Diddy did it–again. The entertainment mogul topped FORBES’ Hip-Hop Cash Kings list for the second year in a row, pulling in $62 million pretax. He was followed by Jay Z ($53.5 million) and Dr. Dre ($41 million); check out the full top 20 here.

Released last month, the package contained a brand-new profile onSwizz Beatz and his Bacardi bonanza, a piece on the man behind Drake’s whiskey and a video taste test of a few Cash Kings’ alcoholic beverages.

Perhaps...

Inside The Recording Academy’s $47M MusiCares Safety Net

Man Of The Hour: Tom Petty will be honored as the MusiCares 2017 Person of the Year shortly before the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles this February. Photo: Neal Preston.

One of Tom Petty’s best-known songs is “Free Fallin’.” In February, he’ll be honored for helping to prevent musicians from just that.

The Recording Academy’s MusiCares Foundation today announced that Petty will be named its 2017 Person Of The Year during Grammy Week in this coming February, thanks to his efforts to...

Drink Up: Taste-Testing Hip-Hop’s Top Toasts

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Earlier this week, FORBES released its 10th annual Hip-Hop Cash Kings list–Diddy, Jay Z, Dr. Dre and Drake claimed the top four spots. Three of the four padded their considerable coffers by hawking alcohol brands in which they have a stake.

So we decided to put them to the test, convening an expert panel consisting of FORBES Editor Randall Lane (a certified sommelier), hip-hop legend Branson B (an unofficial sommelier) and yours truly, at Cove Lounge in Harl...