Tyler Perry turns 42 today and is getting a special gift compliments of Forbes Magazine.

The playwright, screenwriter and director has topped Forbes' highest paid men list beating out Steven Spielberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Elton John and Simon Cowell for the top spot.

Last year, the Madea movie hitmaker came in at #6 but today the five movies he's released in the past two years have earned him over $130 million.

According to Forbes, Perry will next make a rare appearance in a film he didn't direct, write and produce when he takes on the role of author James Patterson's detective Alex Cross.

Perry will star in the movie I, Alex Cross and take on the role left by Morgan Freeman in two earlier films: Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls.

In case you're curious about who else made the list, click the page #s below.

Vanity Fair released it's 17th annual "New Establishment" list, which the magazine calls "the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs."

While Facebook founder Mark Zuckenburg tops the Vanity Fair list for the second year in a row, a couple of black luminaries have made the list amongst the world's best visionaries, prodigies and entrepreneurs.

This year Jay-Z and Tyler Perry celebrate black excellence by taking the No. 21 and No. 44 place on the list, respectively.

Others on the VF list include Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Mark Wahlberg and Ashton Kutcher.

A complete look at Vanity Fair's "New Establishment" list is posted below, and a full feature is available in the magazine's October issue.

1. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
2. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google
3. Jeff Bezos, Amazon
4. Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, Apple
5. Jack Dorsey, Square, Twitter
6. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz
7. Reed Hastings, Netflix
8. John Lasseter, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios
9. Lady Gaga, singer
10. Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg L.P.
11. Dick Costolo, Twitter
12. Mark Pincus, Zynga
13. Jim Breyer, Accel Partners
14. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Graham King, Movies
15. Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital
16. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter
17. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park
18. Reid Hoffman, Greylock Partners, LinkedIn
19. Herb Allen III, Allen & Co.
20. Judd Apatow, Apatow Productions
21. Jay-Z, Roc Nation
22. Todd Phillips, Green Hat Films
23. Yuri Milner, DST Global
24. J. J. Abrams, writer, director, producer
25. Robin Li, Baidu
26. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook
27. Andrew Mason, Groupon
28. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, television
29. Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, Leverage
30. Angela Ahrendts and Christopher Bailey, Burberry
31. Elon Musk, Tesla Motors, Space X
32. Natalie Massenet, Net-a-Porter Group
33. Paul Graham, Y Combinator
34. Sean Parker, entrepreneur
35. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, Flatiron Partners
36. Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Clarium Capital Management
37. Peter Jackson, Wingnut Films
38. Ryan Kavanaugh, Relativity Media
39. Mike Allen, Politico
40. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, All Things D
41. John Hennessy, Stanford University
42. Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp
43. Ashton Kutcher, actor, investor
44. Tyler Perry, director, producer, writer, actor
45. Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
46. Kevin Ryan, Gilt Groupe
47. Daniel Ek, Spotify
48. Henry Blodget, Business Insider
49. Mikael Hed, Niklas Hed, and Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio
50. Justin Timberlake, singer, actor

Tyler Perry is reportedly following in the footsteps of his good friend Oprah Winfrey and launching a new cable network, this according to The New York Times.

The NYT reports that Perry and Lionsgate will launch the new network initially playing reruns of his shows like "House Of Payne" and "Meet The Browns" before buying "third-party content that meshes with Mr. Perry's Christianity-tinged brand."

A source tells the publication that the network is tentatively titled "Tyler TV."

Lionsgate and Mr. Perry have declined to comment on The New York Times' story.

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Tyler Perry opened up to Ebony magazine about a pregnancy scare he had last year and says he would love to leave his legacy to some offspring.

Perry didn't reveal the identity of his special lady but he admitted that this is the longest relationship he's been involved in in a long time.

“This isn't the reason to have children, but it would be really sad to work this hard to build something and not be able to pass it on to my junior, to my sons, to my daughters,” Tyler told Ebony magazine.

He went on to speak about possibly having a child of his own. “Back in December, when we thought we were having a kid, I got a little overwhelmed...Now, I got overwhelmed when I first got a dog because I knew I was responsible for this living creature. So think how I reacted to the thought of having a child.”

Tyler also spoke about his issues with Spike Lee and said he was through with their timultuous relationship.

As previously reported Perry was quoted saying "

"Spike can go straight to hell! You can print that. I am sick of him talking about me."

Now Perry's marching to a different tune and tells Ebony he's ready to let bygones be bygones.

“I believe Spike can do what he does and I can do what I do… There's room for more than one of us in every industry and the moment we embrace that as a society, we can get past all this stuff.”

No word on how Spike Lee feels about this.

Stars Of "Tyler Perry's House Of Payne", "Franklin & Bash" And "Are We There Yet?" Attend The Essence Music Festival
TBS & TNT brought a host of celebs to day one of the ESSENCE Music Festival at their “TBS & TNT All Access Experience Booth” on Friday in New Orlenas.

Stars from “Tyler Perry's House of Payne” (Lance Gross, Keshia Knight Pulliam, & Demetria McKinney), “Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns” (Lamman Rucker, David & Tamela Mann), “Franklin & Bash” (Garcelle Beauvais), “Are We There Yet?” (Terry Crews & Essence Atkins), and “Leverage” (Aldis Hodge) greeted fans and signed autographs at the Morial Convention Center.

As previously reported, the Essence Music Festival is taking place this Fourth Of July Weekend and features performances from Jill Scott, Jennifer Hudson, Trey Songz and headliner Kanye West.

Check out pictures of a few of your favorite celebs at Essence below.

Some of the lucky audience members of Oprah Winfrey's final show gave their testimonials about the experience. Gayle King spoke to a few members beforehand to ask them what they expected and who they hoped to see and it seemed they were just thrilled to be a part of it all.

Fans sung songs in tribute to the greatest talk show host in history and everyone that talked on camera about the show were ecstatic. Celebs and friends such as Maria Shriver, Tyler Perry, Gayle, Stedman and Cicely Tyson all showed up for the finale as fans remembered Oprah's statement, "this isn't goodbye, this is until we meet again."

The impact of The Oprah Winfrey Show is highlighted when you hear people like audience member Wanda Nash say, "It was bittersweet. The message was heartfelt, and I took a lot from it. I realized I'm perfect just the way I am."

Clifton Powell is one actor who is not a Spike Lee fan.

During a recent interview with the Russ Parr Morning Show, the actor known for roles in Next Friday and Ray, voiced his opinions of Spike Lee, and the movies producer's negative comments towards Tyler Perry.

Powell said:

"I don't like Spike, for real. I'm just saying it publicly on the radio. Spike is a hater. He was doing all these movies, Sam and all these guys know he's a hater. He kept all the money, there was lawsuits against him... I'm from the streets and you gotta carry your people. We talk about what “The Man” does; Spike need to go sit his punk a** down, and stop talking about Tyler Perry."

"Tyler Perry was homeless about 10, 12 years ago and Spike wasn't writing him no checks. I think it's wrong, and I shouldn't do this, but I don't like Spike Lee because I don't like his politics as it pertains to how he deals with African Americans. I've auditioned for Spike several times, he kept all of us waiting for hours. It was insulting. He's made people fly across country, pay for themselves and come to auditions. Spike is the worst, and he needs to go sit his punk a** down. If you got a problem with it Spike I'm right here and I'll beat your punk a**."

"He has never hired me, I don't really care, because I would never want to work with him... Tyler has found his genre. The problem with being African-American in film as a producer, you have to be so worried about stepping on toes. We have just a few outlets in terms of the dimensions we are as a people. ]We zero in because there are not enough dimensions of what we do.”

Well, damn.

He called Spike Lee a "hater." That's the funniest story we've written all week.

Don't expect to see Clifton Powell in any Spike Lee joints any time soon, but it's not like Spike had him in any movies to begin with.

Listen to the full interview below:

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