Frederick Levy

I've just learned that Taylor Lautner is now being paid per ab. That's right, the 17-year-old co-star of the Twilight Saga franchise who's famous for his buff physique that is making girls scream when he takes off his shirt in New Moon, is getting $7.5 million for his next pic. The project is Paramount's Northern Lights, a Tom Cruise vehicle to be directed by John Moore (Max Payne) with a start date of April 1st. The logline says the pic is about "a gifted, young, aerobatics pilot who faces off with his controlling, billionaire father and falls in love with a gifted, female pilot). That shitload of money negotiated by WME now makes Taylor Lautner into the highest paid Hollywood teenage actor around. (I'm told that neither Zac Efron nor Miley Cyrus have ever gotten a salary even close to that for their films. Amazing!) So the question is whether Paramount, which is in the Taylor Lautner business in a big way with the recently announced Max Steel, will pony up an even huger salary for the teen who'll be starring as the title lead in their own upcoming blockbuster. (See my previous, EXCLUSIVE: Taylor Lautner To Be Paramount's Next Big Action Star)