Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has replaced Tom Cruise as the world's most powerful celebrity in Forbes' annual "Celebrity 100 Power List" released on Thursday, which ranks the rich and famous based on earnings and buzz. 

Winfrey jumped two spots on the ninth annual list and topped Forbes' 2007 list of the 100 Most Powerful Celebrities. She achieved the status not only with her nine-figure earnings but also through Internet ubiquity, press clippings, magazine covers, and shout-outs on TV and radio. The other "popularity metrics" of past 12 months was also considered into Forbes' analysis.

Oprah Winfrey, whose yearly pay is estimated at 260 million U.S. dollars, was the top money-maker over the past 12 months. She last topped the list in 2005 and came in third last year.

Last year's most powerful, Tom Cruise, slipped from the top spot to No. 8 with his overall income totaling an only 31 million dollars.

Editor of the Forbes Celebrity 100 Power List, Lea Goldman, said Winfrey's ranking was no surprise. "She is pretty much a top five perennial, just based on her earnings alone she usually ranks up there."

Golf superstar Tiger Woods sits right below Winfrey at No. 2 on the list. He is the top-ranking athlete in the bunch and pulls in about 100 million dollars a year. He generates headlines every time he picks up a club despite having only the 16th-highest Web presence.

Although Madonna's pay is only a piddling 72 million dollars these days, she received the most press out of all the celebrities listed, had the second-biggest Internet showing, and came in at No. 3.

Rounding out the top five were the Rolling Stones (fourth place) due to their Bigger Bang tour in North America last year and an income of 88 million dollars this year and Brad Pitt (fifth place) because of his roles in "Babel" and "Ocean's Thirteen" and his tabloid-friendly cohabitation with Angelina Jolie (14th place).

The other actor breaking in the Top 10 was Johnny Depp this year and he took the sixth spot. Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp were 20th and 27th, respectively, last year.

Goldman said while Depp earned a staggering 92 million dollars off the back of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, Pitt, who earned just 35 million dollars, easily outscored him in the media.

New to the "Celebrity 100": George Clooney (40), the cast of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" (12), Justin Timberlake (34), Keira Knightley (71), Bon Jovi (18), actor-comedian Dane Cook (89), Vince Vaughn (54) and Cate Blanchett (63).

Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears have dropped off the annual Forbes magazine list of the 100 most influential stars.

(Xinhua News Agency via Agencies June 16, 2007)