Will Ferrell and Ewan McGregor on Wednesday headed a Forbes.com list of Hollywood’s most overpaid stars when looking at the financial returns of their movies.

Ferrell tops the list of stars who cost more than their movies do, taking in one dollar for every $3.29 his films make. According to Forbes, “Land of the Lost” cost an estimated $US100 million to make but earned just $US65 million at box offices worldwide for movie studio Universal Pictures. The movie followed a disappointing $US43 million box office for Ferrell’s 2008 outing “Semi-Pro“, and $US128 million for “Step Brothers.”

No. 2 on the overpaid actors list is Ewan McGregor (I Love You Phillip Morris, Angels & Demons, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Amelia), who made a slew of poorly performing movies after playing Obi-Wan Kenobi four years ago in “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith.” McGregor’s films earned $3.75 per dollar he was paid.

Forbes 10 Most Overpaid Stars were:

1. Will Ferrell ($US3.29)
2. Ewan McGregor ($US3.75)
3. Billy Bob Thornton ($US4)
4. Eddie Murphy ($US4.43)
5. Ice Cube

   

   ($US4.77)

6. Tom Cruise ($US7.18)
7. Drew Barrymore ($US7.43)
8. Leonardo DiCaprio ($US7.52)
9. Samuel Jackson ($US8.59)
10. Jim Carrey ($US8.62)

Anthony Pellicano, the former investigator known as Hollywood’s private eye to the stars, goes on trial on Thursday in a case of wiretapping and skullduggery that is expected to reveal the dark side of the glitzy world of the movie industry.

Actors Sylvester Stallone, Keith Carradine and Farrah Fawcett, along with movie studio executives Brad Grey and Ron Meyer and former powerhouse talent agent Michael Ovitz, are among the 120 prosecution witnesses called to testify in a case that has kept Hollywood on tenterhooks for almost six years.

Pellicano, 63, is accused of illegally wiretapping the telephones of opponents of his powerful clients and of bribing police officers and telephone company workers to run illegal background checks on the targets of his investigation.