J K Rowling named Entertainer of the Year

Entertainment Weekly has named J K Rowling, the woman with the magical Midas touch, as Entertainer of the Year. The leading US magazine of entertainment and popular culture said the British author, who has sold nearly 400 million copies of her boy-wizard series that's been adapted into a mega successful movie franchise, deserved encomiums for getting "people to tote around her big, old-fashioned printed-on-paper books as if they were the hottest new entertainment devices on the planet." Rowling was in a class by herself on the magazine's list of the year's top 25 entertainers, which was separated by editors into five other categories that evoke school cliques—prodigies, class clowns, most popular, most buzzed-about and valedictorians. The list included George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Will Smith and Angelina Jolie. The Harry Potter industry, Entertainment Weekly said, has generated $15 billion in revenues, out of which $4.49 billion has been grossed by the five Harry Potter films, making it the most lucrative movie franchise in history, zipping past Star Wars and James Bond films this year. The magazine, that claims 11 million readers, has put Rowling on the cover of its latest special issue.