Meet pop piano prodigy Vanessa Carlton | 121427__carlton1_l
Vanessa Carlton Photograph by Chris McPherson

NET WORTH She was last seen playing the piano at 30 miles an hour, speeding down the highway while strapped to a baby grand on a flatbed truck in the video for her hit ''A Thousand Miles,'' from her debut album, ''Be Not Nobody.'' But now, she says, she can relax a little, which she does by... playing more music. ''Me just sitting in a room with my piano is my release with no time ticking. It's what still gets me through,'' she says. ''I don't understand how artists who don't write their music find release. Like with Britney, for example, who has such a grueling schedule, I wonder how much harder [it is] for her because she can't go to a piano or a guitar and just sit down and sing and play her heart out. I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't do that.''