Tom Cruise joins top information age leaders
( 2001-09-05 14:25 ) (7 )

Movie star Tom Cruise joined the ranks of Vanity Fair magazine's Top 50 leaders of the information age on Tuesday -- the only actor and one of the highest new entrants on a list dominated by entertainment and technology companies.

Cruise, 39, dominated the headlines this year by divorcing his actress wife Nicole Kidman and dating Spanish screen siren Penelope Cruz. But he took 26th place on the list, mainly for his hot movie deals as both an actor and producer.

Vanity Fair called Cruise "one of the savviest businessmen in Hollywood" saying the "Mission: Impossible" star negotiated a back-end deal on last year's action thriller sequel that earned him about US$75 million.

AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates retained their respective first and second place rankings on the list, compiled by Vanity Fair correspondents using stock prices, overall business performance and other factors as a guide. The list is now in its sixth year.

This year's list went global for the first time to include three non-American CEOs -- Vivendi Universal's Jean-Marie Messier (7), Sony Corporation's Nobuyuki Idei (24) and Thomas Middelhoff of Bertelsmann AG (13).

One of the biggest declines in ranking was that of media mogul Ted Turner, who fell from 14 to 50th place after the merger of AOL and Time Warner, his divorce from Jane Fonda and a failed bid to buy part of a Russian TV network.

Yahoo executives Tim Koogle and David Filo, formerly both ranked at 17, dropped off the list entirely in a reflection of the dotcom shakeout. But eBay CEO Meg Whitman -- one of five women on the list -- shot up from 50th place to 14.

"I think this year was a year when people took great leaps and great falls," said Matt Tyrnauer, Vanity Fair's editor-at-large. "A lot of dotcoms did have a poor year but I think what seems like a seismic correction is probably just a bump in the road."

The top 10 on Vanity Fair's new establishment list are:

1) Steve Case, chairman AOL Time Warner

2) Bill Gates, chairman Microsoft

3) Sumner Redstone, chairman Viacom

4) Rupert Murdoch, chairman News Corp.

5) Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft

6) Gerald Levin, CEO AOL Time Warner

7) Jean-Marie Messier, chairman Vivendi Universal

8) Bob Pittman co-COO AOL Time Warner

9) Warren Buffet, CEO Berkshire Hathaway

10)Steve Jobs, CEO Apple Computer and CEO Pixar Animation