For good returns, invest in Vince

As movie stars go, Vince Vaughn offers the best bang for the buck, says Forbes magazine.

Vaughn raked in $14.73 of gross income for studios for every dollar he was paid for “The Break-up,” “Wedding Crashers” and “Dodgeball,” the magazine calculated for its special entertainment issue.

Tobey Maguire ranked No. 2 on the magazine’s list, with a gross income return of $13.44 for each dollar of his pay for the “Spider-Man” sequels and “Seabiscuit.”

Julia Roberts was in third place with a gross income return of $13.19, followed by Brad Pitt ($12.73), Naomi Watts and Matt Damon ($12.16 each), George Clooney ($11.56), Jennifer Aniston ($10.48), Hugh Jackman ($9.90) and Ben Stiller ($9.50).

The highly paid, highly bankable Will Smith – who reliably led the July Fourth weekend with a $66 million debut for “Hancock” – ranked 21st with a gross income return of $5.64 for every dollar spent.

Nicole Kidman is at bottom of the list, at No. 35. Her high-paying roles in “The Golden Compass,” “The Invasion” and “Bewitched” averaged only $1.01 of gross income.

Keeping mum about mum

Christian Bale’s bankability may be in question following allegations that he assaulted his mother and sister at a London hotel.

“It’s a deeply personal matter,” Bale said Thursday in his first public comments on the situation. “I would ask you to respect my privacy in the matter.”

The Welsh-born Bale was in Barcelona for the Spanish premiere of his new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”

He was questioned by British police on Tuesday and released on bail, but not charged.

That’s 400,000,000 cents

50 Cent has sued Taco Bell for $4 million, claiming the fast-food restaurant chain is using his name without permission in its advertising.

The Mexican-themed chain features him in a print ad asking him to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent as part of its “Why Pay More?” campaign, which promotes Cinnamon Twists for 79 cents, Crunchy Tacos for 89 cents and Bean Burritos for 99 cents.

Says Taco Bell: “We made a good faith, charitable offer to 50 Cent to change his name to either 79, 89 or 99 Cent for one day by rapping his order at a Taco Bell, and we would have been very pleased to make (a) $10,000 donation to the charity of his choice.”

Not so black-and-white?

Rapper Nas not only released his new CD on Wednesday, he joined with MoveOn.org and ColorofChange.org to deliver a petition with 620,127 signatures accusing the Fox News cable channel of racism in its coverage of Barack Obama and of African Americans in general.

“Fox poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news,” Nas said.

Fox News replied that it “believes in all protesters’ exercising their right to free speech, including Nas who has an album to promote.”

The birthday bunch

Actress Barbara Harris is 73. Supermodel Iman is 53. Guitarist Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) is 50. Actress Illeana Douglas is 43. Actor Matt LeBlanc is 41. Actor D.B. Woodside (“24”) is 39. Actress Miriam Shor (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) is 37. Actor James Lafferty (“One Tree Hill”) is 23.