Cowell jumps up the wealth charts

LONDON, April 19 (UPI) -- No one in Britain is piling up money in the entertainment business faster these days than entrepreneur Simon Cowell, now worth some $200 million.

The "American Idol" judge, whose empire of reality-based TV shows turned into a personal fortune estimated at $200 million, jumped from 944th place last year to 700th place this year on The Sunday Times Rich List, the Times of London reported Thursday.

Cowell surpassed singer Robbie Williams, who came in at No. 755 with $190 million, up $10 million from the year before.

They're both pikers compared to the No. 1 man on the list, steel industry captain Lakshmi Mittal, who pushed his fortune nearly $8 billion higher in the past 12 months to reach more than $38 billion all told. No. 2 on the Times Rich List is Roman Abramovich, the oil and steel magnate owns the Chelsea soccer club, with just less than $22 billion.

Richard Branson dropped out of the Top 10, coming in at 11th with $6.2 billion in assets and Paul McCartney ranks 102nd with just less than $1.5 billion, the newspaper said.

It takes a worth of $140 million to make the Times' Top 1,000 list, compared to $120 million in 2006.