Entertainment Weekly has released the Top 25 entertainers of the year....they are:

If not for one unlucky September afternoon on the streets of New Jersey, 2007 would have been just perfect for George Clooney. In the first calendar year after his Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor in Syriana, he headlined the well-received blockbuster Ocean's Thirteen, turned in one of the most forceful performances of his career in the legal drama Michael Clayton (which he also exec-produced), and even popped up doing humanitarian work in the documentary Darfur Now. And the guy still had time to direct the football romance Leatherheads (due in April), take a role as an assassin in the Coen brothers' upcoming comedy Burn After Reading, and, of course, crash his motorcycle.

With or without a fractured rib, Clooney has forever been the definition of class. ''It's always nice to see someone coming into their own and assuming it very graciously,'' says Tilda Swinton, Clooney's costar in both Clayton and Burn After Reading. ''He has a very developed sense of service. And who knows what he's going to do with it.'' Indeed, no other Hollywood star more deftly balanced box office viability with personal responsibility this year.-Dave Karger

Every now and then, David Chase will open up the newspaper and suddenly feel the old crackle of inspiration that kept The Sopranos alive and electrifying for eight years. ''I'll see a story about some bit of Mob business and go, 'Oh, that would have been a great story for us,''' he says. ''Sure, I miss it.''

Five months have passed since that ''Don't Stop Believin''' finale, in which Tony, Carmela, AJ, and Meadow gathered for a late (and last?) supper, only to be interrupted by a smashing, baffling cut to black. Show creator Chase still bristles at what he calls the ''twisted desire'' of those who wanted to see Tony get rubbed out. But he doesn't buy into the life-went-on/people-never-change theory, either. ''I do think therapy helped Tony,'' says Chase, ''but it was never going to 'cure' him of being a mobster.'' Either way, the debate itself epitomized everything that was bada bing! about the show to begin with. Chase, truly the godfather of today's watercooler TV, puts it this way: ''I always liked hearing how there would be these dinner parties, where people would have ziti, watch the show, and talk about it afterwards. Knowing we had viewers like that emboldened us and challenged us to create a richer, deeper show.'' And now - smash to black - the party's over. -Jeff Jensen

Angelina Jolie is currently fulfilling fanboy fantasies in Beowulf with her role as Grendel's mom. Grendel's naked mom. In digital 3-D, no less. But energizing her base is hardly the 32-year-old actress' only accomplishment this year. In A Mighty Heart, Jolie strapped on a prosthetic pregnancy belly, donned a curly wig, and delivered the sort of heart-wrenching turn that reminded audiences why she won that Academy Award (for 1999's Girl, Interrupted ) in the first place. In other words, she acted.

''The belly just slid right on, and a wig is a lot easier than getting your hair done, but learning her French-Cuban accent was difficult,'' Jolie says, describing her preparations for playing Mariane Pearl, widow of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter slain in Pakistan in 2002. During the five weeks she shot the picture with director Michael Winterbottom in India - mostly in one house, with a camera following her from room to room as she sometimes improvised dialogue - Jolie was hounded by paparazzi, and a terrorist group reportedly declared a fatwa against her during production. ''It wasn't like a code red or anything,'' she says, ''but we did have a few moments...''

Whatever happened in India - and whatever she's wearing in Beowulf - her performances in 2007 were far more interesting than her private life. A nice change of pace. -Benjamin Svetkey

The beginning of the year was particularly cold for Will Smith. First, there was the frigid business of taking over the Brooklyn Bridge in January to shoot his upcoming sci-fi opus I Am Legend. Then there was the experience of losing the Best Actor Oscar (he was nominated for The Pursuit of Happyness - his first blockbuster drama, at nearly $163 million) to The Last King of Scotland's Forest Whitaker. Of course, Smith suspected he wasn't going home with hardware. ''If you want to win an Oscar, you need to play a historical figure, or someone who's mentally ill,'' he says with a laugh. ''So the moment I saw that Forest was playing both, I knew I had no chance.''

Still, an Oscar nomination (his second, after 2001's Ali) isn't a bad way to start the year. With Legend set to open huge next month, a strong finish seems in store, too. All things considered, this Smith-bracketed 2007 was a showcase for the star's Hanksian range and popularity. Next year might be another big one: Hancock - a superhero comedy and another blend of what he calls ''popcorn and prestige'' - is slated for next summer. ''To me, there's absolutely no award better than people going to your movie in record levels,'' he says. ''People who spend their hard-earned money to go see your movie - I'll take that any day of the week.'' -Jeff Jensen

Not many actors do more by doing less than Tommy Lee Jones. And 2007 might mark a career high for the 61-year-old actor, who delivered extraordinarily restrained performances in two of the year's most lauded films, In the Valley of Elah and No Country for Old Men. In both, he plays typical Tommy Lee Jones characters - a bottled-up ex-Army guy chasing down his soldier son's murderers in Elah; a seen-it-all sheriff on the trail of a cowboy thief in No Country - but this time, his material is richer than usual. Jones' uniquely taciturn way of cutting open his grizzled characters has connected on screen as it rarely has before - not just once, but twice.

''I had a feeling that the potential for these movies to be good existed, but that's only because I've made so many bad movies,'' Jones says, chuckling. ''But every job you just try to do as well as you can, whether it's a comedy or a tragedy or a soft-drink commercial in Japan.'' The actor, whose scary but droll gruffness on screen is exactly what you'll encounter in person, is pleased that people like his work this year, but not too pleased. ''Well, it's better than being excoriated, or being dragged behind the pickup with a rope around your neck,'' he says. ''It's been a fine, good year.'' That would be an understatement, and it would be totally in character. -Gregory Kirschling

Not long ago, if you said the phrase ''strong female character,'' what you really meant was ''bitch.'' Today however, you'd mean a powerful, complex figure who's flawed but fascinating. The actress this description calls for doesn't fit into any box - except, at last, the TV. Glenn Close (FX's Damages), Mary-Louise Parker (Showtime's Weeds), Kyra Sedgwick (TNT's The Closer), and Holly Hunter (TNT's Saving Grace) (pictured, left to right) are four extraordinary film vets who have embraced the challenges of their latest provocative roles on the small screen. Here, a tribute to the leading women of cable. -Ari Karpel

Before 2002's The Bourne Identity, there wasn't much on Matt Damon's résumé to indicate that he'd make a convincing action hero, let alone the most badass killing machine of the new millennium. But here we are, three movies - and $525 million - into the Jason Bourne saga, each film arguably better than its predecessor, and Damon continues to surprise us. And himself. ''I agree I'm not, as you say, the most likely badass killing machine. But I love this guy. And to be honest, these movies have changed my life.'' They've also changed what we expect from summer movies. Instead of being big, loud, and dumb, they can be precise, hushed, and smart as hell. But they wouldn't work without a leading man who could convey all of these things...often without words. Damon says more with his haunted and hunted face in Ultimatum than most actors could with a dozen monologues. That's why he's not only the thinking man's action hero but also the best thing to happen to summer since Kool-Aid. - Chris Nashawaty

When Johnny Depp sailed into the sunset at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the quirky heartthrob capped one of the most lucrative trilogies in movie history. Hollywood enthusiastically surrendered, handing him the lead role in Tim Burton's big-screen musical adaptation of Sweeney Todd without hearing him sing a note. Risky, dark, kooky: music to our ears. -Jeff Labreque

Watch just 30 seconds of Katherine Heigl as Grey's Anatomy's Dr. Izzie Stevens and it's easy to envision the statuesque blonde on the big screen opposite a Clooney or Pitt. But when she fell in with Seth Rogen and his merry band of nitwits in the raucous summer comedy Knocked Up, it was her raw vulnerability and comic chops that won our hearts. -Jeff Labreque

Faith Hill was only kidding, folks, when she feigned outrage at Carrie Underwood's win at the 2006 CMA Awards, but viewers may've been truly shocked by the now-24-year-old's meteoric rise. In 2007, Underwood further solidified her country bona fides with a confident, twangy No. 1 album, Carnival Ride, that vindicated all the promise and possibility American Idol aspires to offer. -Jeff Labreque

We already knew Kanye West was brash and demanding. But his occasional petulance - see the MTV Video Music Awards - can be defended as perfectionism. When it came to public feuds, he punched his weight, pummeling rival 50 Cent in their 9/11 smackdown. ''I'm doing pretty good as far as geniuses go,'' West brags in ''Barry Bonds,'' off his multiplatinum third album, Graduation. Undeniably so. -Jeff Labreque

Admit it: You've got a crush on Zac Efron. It's okay - you're not alone. After displaying an impressive ability for singing and dancing with perfectly coiffed hair in this summer's Hairspray and High School Musical 2, he is undoubtedly the Hollywood heartthrob du jour. But this 20-year-old doesn't simply want to rest on his good looks - he's hoping next year's Big-esque dramedy Seventeen (costarring Knocked Up's Leslie Mann) will ensure he's not the next Scott Baio. - Tim Stack

Rihanna's No. 1 hit, ''Umbrella,'' was the jam of summer 2007. On May 30, the single topped the Hot 100, Pop 100, and Hot Digital Songs charts - and set a record for digital downloads in an opening week. Days later, the 19-year-old songstress dropped Good Girl Gone Bad, her third CD in less than two years, which has sold some 800,000 copies to date. And in September, ''Umbrella'' earned Rihanna a double win at MTV's Video Music Awards. - Margeaux Watson

At a mere 15 years of age, the daughter of country crooner Billy Ray Cyrus is the button-cute singing star of Disney Channel's No. 1-rated Hannah Montana, and her Best of Both Worlds concert tour is now the hottest ticket in the U.S. - assuming you can get one (and seriously, can you? Because we could sure use a couple). Both of these will have to tide you over until Hannah Montana: The Movie hits next year. - Lynette Rice

ShoWest's 2007 ''Star of Tomorrow'' wasted no time. Within a month, the 21-year-old had the No. 1 movie in the country (Disturbia), and July's Transformers soared past the $300 million mark. A trespassing arrest in November was a surprising misstep, but his star will recover. Did we mention that Indiana Jones thingy? - Jeff Labrecque

The revolution, such as it was, took place in less than an hour and was led by a 2-year-old. Early this spring, longtime collaborators Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay (Saturday Night Live, Anchorman, Talladega Nights) were kicking around ideas for a sketch to help launch their new comedy website, FunnyOrDie. McKay thought it might be amusing to do something with his rambunctious toddler, Pearl, so he whipped up a silly two-minute piece casting her as Ferrell's ornery, foulmouthed landlord. During a break from Ferrell's son Magnus' third birthday party, they shot the bit in the doorway of the Ferrell family's guesthouse. ''It was so casual - like, 'Did you cut the cake? Okay, we've gotta go do the thing with Pearl real quick,''' Ferrell remembers, sitting at a small table in McKay's trailer on the Los Angeles set of their upcoming comedy Step Brothers. ''Then, when it launched, it was mayhem. Complete mayhem.''

On April 12, the video, entitled ''The Landlord,'' appeared on FunnyOrDie.com and became an overnight viral sensation, receiving so many hits so quickly that the site's server eventually crashed. The productivity of the American workforce dipped as millions of cubicle drones watched Pearl get up in Ferrell's grille, calling him ''bitch'' and ''a--hole,'' and hectoring him for her rent money so she could ''get [her] drink on.'' Soon, Pearl was receiving an offer to costar in a Jackie Chan movie, while Bill O'Reilly, Geraldo Rivera, and other noted child-psychology experts debated whether she was an innocent victim of shameless Hollywood exploitation. McKay and Ferrell, who only a few months earlier had agreed to spearhead the website - the brainchild of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Mark Kvamme, whose firm, Sequoia Capital, would supply the funding - were bewildered. ''It was like, 'The president is holding a meeting to discuss it right now! Aircraft carriers are being diverted to the Indian Ocean!'' McKay says, laughing. ''It was crazy s---.''

Where some just saw a goofy bit of workplace diversion, others saw a new landmark in the evolution of creative content on the Web. As ''The Landlord'' went on to rack up more than 48 million hits, becoming one of the most watched clips in Internet history, user-generated comedy bits began streaming onto FunnyOrDie in massive numbers. And it wasn't just aspiring comedians from the hinterlands looking for exposure; celebrities like Brooke Shields, Jenna Elfman, Danny DeVito, Eva Longoria Parker, and Bill Murray appeared in sketches on the site, seeing it as a low-stress, potentially high-impact venue for their own comedy stylings. Humor on the Internet, once largely the business of lonely, sweatpants-clad webcam jockeys, had a hip new Hollywood home.

Though traffic has subsided since the initial spike, FunnyOrDie continues to draw a steady 3.5 million visitors a month. Last month, writer-director-producer Judd Apatow, who'd worked with Ferrell and McKay on Anchorman and Talladega Nights and was hot off the combination punch of Knocked Up and Superbad, signed on as a third partner on the site, further certifying its legitimacy as a go-to spot for comedy. Apatow has already contributed several clips to the site and is developing more original pieces. ''It's scary to make a movie,'' he says. ''It's fun to do something like this, where it doesn't have to make money, you don't have to market it - it's just a pure comedy experience.''

That's not to say FunnyOrDie is completely pure - for the site's partners and financial backers, all those yuks represent potential bucks. Thus far, FunnyOrDie has yet to turn any kind of profit (''We're doing quite well, if by 'well' you mean getting no money and working a lot,'' McKay says drily), but Sequoia Capital has already poured several millions of dollars into the site, banking on a future in which FunnyOrDie operates as a sort of Web 2.0 version of Comedy Central, supported by advertising and available on any device with a screen. ''The goal is to create a channel on the Internet,'' Kvamme says. ''Programming that channel and creating the content - that's the key - and that's what Adam, Will, and those guys do so well.'' -Josh Rottenberg

It takes a certain self-confidence to play a woman who accidentally dates her third cousin, erroneously assumes her neighbor is a terrorist, and gets called the C-word by a colleague. Especially when said character is based on you. ''I love going to those uncomfortable places,'' says Fey, who stars as 30 Rock's workaholic TV maven and is also the NBC show's creator and exec producer. ''I'll go down any weird avenue.'' Maybe this year's surprise Emmy win for best comedy will empower Fey to pursue some dreams for her alter ego. ''Liz Lemon could do an international adoption for a Russian baby and get the paperwork wrong with the European dates and somehow end up with a huge, muscular 13-year-old. Yeah, I could see that.'' Hopefully we will too. -Jessica Shaw

2007 was not, shall we say, a barrel of laughs in the world at large, so when writer-director-producer Judd Apatow (pictured, center) and his ever-expanding comedy clan (left to right: Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, and Paul Rudd) came along this summer with two stiff shots of cathartic humor - the oops-she's-preggers romp Knocked Up and the high school raunchfest Superbad- moviegoers drank them up to the tune of nearly $300 million in collective grosses. Today, when studio execs have a comedy that feels flat or formulaic, the call goes out to ''Judd it up'' - sweet irony for a man once best known for critically beloved flops like TV's Freaks and Geeks. ''It was always my dream to become a verb,'' Apatow deadpans. ''That's what I wrote in my high school yearbook.'' -Josh Rottenberg

It took almost two decades to get made. And the plot involved pig poop. But when Homer's henchmen finally unveiled The Simpsons Movie, something amazing happened: It didn't suck. Like, $525 million-worldwide-gross didn't suck. ''That people thought it was at least pretty good was the most enormous sigh of ‘Thank God!' I've ever had in my life,'' says writer-producer Al Jean. What about those fans who demand a sequel and won't take d'oh! for an answer? ''It would be hurtful to not let us recover a little more,'' says Simpsons creator Matt Groening, ''but I'm hoping it will be sooner than 18 years.'' - Dan Snierson

"I think the producers were so strong about me doing this role because they had seen me do other diva roles,'' says Ugly Betty star Williams (A Diva's Christmas Carol, Broadway's Into the Woods). ''They knew I could handle it.'' And not just handle it - spin it on its stiletto heel. As diabolical editrix Wilhelmina Slater, she memorably burst onto the prime-time landscape last year in a masterful scene where her assistant injected her with Botox as she lounged in her office. This season, she's upped the ante, as Wilhelmina attempts a coup to launch her own magazine, Slater. Williams garnered an Emmy nod in July, proving that those ABC producers are just as cunning as her character. -Tanner Stransky

WHY HIM Video stores are littered with the corpses of movies that tried to be Gladiator and failed. But this year, 300 got it right by spiking its ancient story line (the Spartan stand at the Battle of Thermopylae) with eye-candy F/X and giddy amounts of gore. With its jaw-dropping $71 million first weekend, 300 was the sleeper hit of the year. And Butler's turn as the impossibly muscled King Leonidas may be the most ferocious performance since Russell Crowe's Maximus. We don't throw praise like that around lightly. In other words: Yes, we were entertained. -Chris Nashawaty

It's only lately that Winehouse has become as famous for her train wreck of a personal life-the slurred performances, the bloody paparazzi shots, the drug arrest - as for her music. But for many of us, that brilliantly brassy voice, and not the drama, is still the star attraction. Her breakout CD, Back to Black, blending house-inspired pop and '60s-era soul, featured the prescient swinger ''Rehab'' and earned the 24 year-old a legion of fans (Prince and Elton John included), all hoping she gets it together so that we can see what she comes up with next. -Dave Karger

Tyler Perry may stand at an imposing 6'5'' but he's always been the underdog. That is, until now. Last June, the writer-director-actor's half-hour TBS series House of Payne delivered the highest ratings ever for a basic-cable sitcom premiere. In October, his low-budget romantic dramedy Why Did I Get Married? topped the box office with $21.4 million, beating competition from George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. Now that the Atlanta-based mogul has gotten Hollywood's attention, it's only a matter of time before he becomes a true industry giant. -Tim Stack