Harry Potter author JK Rowling now earns so much that she can afford a £4,479 night in the Brook Penthouse suite of London's Claridge's Hotel every hour of her life.

Her earnings of £41million last year - or £77 a minute - mean she can also afford a £75 a head Gordon Ramsay dinner for two in the hotel restaurant every two minutes.

It would take 30 seconds to pay for her favourite tipple - a gin and tonic made with a £39 bottle of Tanqueray No.10.

The pay-per-minute figure was worked out by Forbes magazine for its list of the top ten celebrity pay packets of last year.

At No.9, Rowling is the only non-American on the list.

Topping the list with £180million earnings, or £ 342 a minute, is Hollywood producer and director Steven Spielberg.

Satellite radio shock jock Howard Stern is second with £163million.

Star Wars mastermind George Lucas continues to do nicely with prequels and merchandising earning him £127million last year - or £242 a minute, for third on the list. Talk show host, magazine publisher and TV producer Oprah Winfrey is at No.4 - and the only other woman in the list, with an income of £122million.

Comic and actor Jerry Seinfeld is still enjoying the fruits of the show named after him, with royalties and investments taking his fortune to £54million.

The list shows that, while celebrities often venture into nine-figure territory, their paychecks do not come close to the sums earned in the business world.

Microsoft's Bill Gates makes much more than any of Hollywood's best.

Meanwhile, Rowling's potential for earning, which has given her a personal wealth of £500million, looks set to continue. The fifth Harry Potter film - The Order of The Phoenix - is due out in Summer 2007 and the seventh and final Harry Potter book is well under way.

A sixth and seventh Harry Potter film will then also follow. The writer, holidaying in America, said last week she was looking forward to 'resolving' the Harry Potter story.

Researcher Hannah Clark, of Forbes, said: 'If you want to keep making money in the long term you need a winning franchise - and JK Rowling is proof of that.'