Cardboard Cut-Out Ryan Seacrest Earns $55 Million

So much for talent having anything to do with one's net worth. Then again, if some dude with a 20-inch neck can make $20 million for running up and down a field with a football, why shouldn't Ryan Seacrest—the queen of teleprompter reading—earn $55 million in 2011?

The Hollywood Reporter devotes a long, tedious cover story to the media maven, while Gawker neatly nets it out: The 36-year-old talking head makes $20m from Clear Channel for his syndicated morning radio show; $15m as host of American Idol; and $20m from deals with E! and NBC Universal, producing reality poop Keeping Up with the Kardashians, hosting New Year's Rockin' Eve With Dick Clark and brand partnerships with Coke, Microsoft and Proctor & Gamble.

He's also developing film projects, a music publishing biz and 19 other deals in the pipeline. You got a dream? Ambition? Hope? Oh, just give it up. Ryan Seacrest will always be ahead of you in line.