Highest-Paid Actresses 2011

1 - Ashton Kutcher

He is better known for his acting career. But he has invested in tech companies including Skype, Airbnb, Likealittle and Milk. He recently started a tech investing fund called A Grade with Ron Burkle and Gary Oseary. Kutcher recently attended a Demo Day for incubator Y Combinator in Mountain View, Calif., drawing a crowd of wide-eyed entrepreneurs eager to talk to him.

2 - MC Hammer

MC Hammer, a.k.a. rapper Stanley Kirk Burrell has been a frequent guest at tech events in Silicon Valley with the likes of Ron Conway. Hammer also was an advisor to start-up DanceJam.com. Hammer here is seated with Conway in the audience during a town hall meeting with President Barack Obama, Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

3 - Chamillionaire

He has become a regular at Silicon Valley tech conferences, where he says he wants to learn more about how new technology can affect the music industry. Most recently he attended the July 29 TechCrunch Crunchup at AOL in Palo Alto, Calif. He also has been a judge at a TechCrunch start-up conference.

4 - Tim Ferris

Bestselling author Tim Ferris (The 4-Hour Workweek) has also been an active angel investor in tech start-ups. His investments include Twitter, Reputation.com, DailyBurn and SimpleGeo. He's also an advisor for companies including Evernote, StumbleUpon and Uber.

5 - Kim Kardashian

She is a co-founder of online subscription shoe company ShoeDazzle.com, which has reportedly raised $60 million in total venture financing. The founder of the company is Brian Lee, a serial entrepreneur whose first company, LegalZoom is expected to go public soon.

6 - Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is an investor in companies including Stipple, a photo advertising start-up, and Miso Media, a music education start-up.

7 - Curt Schilling

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is a founder of gaming start-up 38 Studios.

8 - Will.i.am

Will. i.am of the Black Eyed Peas in January was named director of creative innovation at chip giant Intel. (What that means exactly is unclear.) His geek cred was solidified in December 2010 when he wrote and performed a song about cloud computing for Salesforce.com at CEO Marc Benioff's keynote.

9 - Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga invested in Backplane, a social networking start-up, along with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's Tomorrow Ventures.

10 - Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal joined Twitter in November 2008 and helped draw mainstream users to the service. He also used web video service 12seconds.tv, drawing massive traffic to that website. He still records spots regularly on video iPhone app Tout.

• Reference/Source: Forbes.com by Tomio Geron (Social Markets) [08/05/2011]

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Forbes.com Inc. is a leading Internet media company providing business information services and lifestyle editorial content designed to serve the needs of business leaders, professionals, investors and affluent consumers. The Forbes.com Web site, located at http://www.forbes.com, is focused on the theme of wealth -- how it is created, how it is managed and how it can be enjoyed. The site includes daily original reporting on the business of technology; real- time business information news updates; the complete online editions of Forbes magazine, Forbes Global, Forbes ASAP and Forbes FYI; a powerful search engine with access to all current and archived Forbes content; stock and mutual fund stock quotes, and comprehensive company profiles; an expanded online version of the Forbes.com Best of The Web guide; and a wide array of interactive tools, calculators and databases, including the annual Forbes Lists.

About Tomio Geron, Author



He cover the social web/social networking, start-ups and various other Silicon Valley topics from San Francisco. He was previously a reporter for Dow Jones VentureWire, where he covered venture capital and Internet start-up companies, from search engines to seed investing to special purpose vehicles. He also previously worked for Red Herring, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and other outlets. In a previous life he was a web developer. Follow Tomio on Twitter: @tomiogeron.

After months, maybe even years of courting and being with your significant other, it’s time you take your relationship to the next level. Yes, it’s time to get married: dress in your best, walk down the aisle, and promise to be together in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, ’till death do you part.

You want to make this moment special, but it seems that every wedding proposal idea has already been done. A lot of people have already found a ring inside a slice of cake, or have read a proposal note with the grocery list. Some couples have even gone to the extremes to profess their eternal love to their significant other: skydiving, scuba diving, and some have even proposed marriage in a live baseball game.

You want to make your wedding proposal just as special as your special someone. You want it to be romantic and memorable, but you don’t want to make it look or sound too much like the movies. Weird and wacky is the way to go especially if your partner has a good sense of fun, humor and excitement. Here are some ways to make your wedding proposal memorable, and make your partner give you the sweetest “Yes” he or she will ever give in your lives together.

Here are 10 of 12 Geekiest Wedding Proposals from Oddee.com:

1 - Borderlands Videogame Proposal

Gamer Ben is a huge fan of Borderlands, the popular FPS/RPG hybrid from Gearbox. So when he met girlfriend Tora, he had to sit her down and explain his guilty secret: he was A GAMER, and his Borderlands addiction may well take up hours of his time. Would Tora be okay with this? Well, err, yeah, because like Ben, Tora is a Borderlands nut. When Ben decided to pop The Question, he decided to take a chance and ask Gearbox for some help. And help they did.

The studio spent a week working on a special Borderlands-themed proposal video for Ben to show Tora, featuring some brilliant close-to-the-knuckle quips from the game's robotic mascot, Claptrap. You can watch this amazing clip below, and Tora's response below that. What an awesome bit of fan-service by Gearbox!


She said yes. Take a look at her reaction:

2 - Harry Potter Proposal

Here's how Reddit user Trehlo proposed to his girlfriend. Oh, and be sure to check out the title of the chapter where the rings sits on (The unbreakable vow). Need some pressure, future wife?

3 - Groupon's Proposal

In 2011 on Groupon, Greg H. from Cincinnati proposed to his girlfriend, Dana B, who apparently said yes (it says, the deal is on). Okay, it sounds gimicky, but I have to admit that it's actually pretty cute. The deal is titled “A Surprise for a Dana from a Greg,” and by clicking “buy,” Dana accepted Greg's proposal for $1 (she got $999,998 off the $999,999 value). What a deal!

Groupon had fun with it and threw in some quirkiness. The Fine Print reads: “Groupon entitled to no less than 15% of your marital bliss. Either party may develop a snoring problem. One or both participants will not always look like a 20-year-old. Good luck, you kids.” It also lists The Groupon Guide to: A Successful Marriage, which includes advice like having nacho Thursdays and watching The Negotiator to learn about compromise.

If you were also charmed by Greg and would like to purchase the deal, just click buy and you'll receive the message “Congratulations Dana or Stranger. You are now unofficially obliged to marry Greg!.” Good deal!

4 - Captain Jean-Luc Picard Proposal

We have no information about this young lady, but it is obvious that she is very fortunate to have found a man of such discerning taste and character. “Aye aye, sir” would be an appropriate response.

5 - Treasure Hunt iPhone App Proposal

LinkedIn employee Bryan Haggerty coded a custom iPhone application to send his girlfriend Jeannie Chou on a scavenger hunt throughout San Francisco. The web app included a map containing location points, each one accompanied with a video providing clues on where to go next. In the end, the map points connected to form a <3, and the final destination was the top of a hill in Dolores Park, where Haggerty busted out the big question.

6 - Pokemon Proposal

Is there any better way to propose than with a Pokeball ring box? That depends on who you ask. If you ask a Pokemon fan, probably not.

7 - Mario Proposal

This is a video of a guy proposing to his Mario-loving girlfriend. He decked out his living room to resemble the Mushroom Kingdom, and even had her knock the engagement ring "out" of a question block with her head.

8 - Storm Trooper Proposal

Storm Trooper Proposes at DragonCon in Atlanta.

9 - Bejeweled Game Proposal

Knowing your girlfriend's favorite hobbies is a great start for planning a proposal. For Bernie Peng, that meant using the game 'Bejeweled' to ask Tammy Li to marry him. Peng, a financial software programmer, spent a month tweaking the game so when Li reached a certain score, a ring and the proposal popped up on the screen.

According to Li, he set a pretty low score; she is now sporting an identical pink sapphire engagement ring. The game manufacturer eventually heard about the story. Instead of being angry that Peng had hacked into their game, company officials were so impressed they offered to pay for part of the wedding.

10 - Google Maps Proposal

Michael Weiss-Malik, a Google employee, deserves a lot of credit for this one. What better way to show the world your love than displaying it on Google Maps? Weiss-Malik got his buddies on the Street View team to give him a heads-up on the next time the Street View car was coming out to take pictures. And when that day came, he was well-prepared, holding a banner that read "Proposal 2.0: Marry me Leslie!!" (see above) After that, all he had to was lure Leslie into loading Google Maps and zooming in on the precise coordinates of his romantic stunt.

• Reference/Source: Oddee.com by Gracie Murano [6/7/2011]