Lady Gaga tops Forbes 'Celebrity 100' list

Lady Gaga has topped this year's annual Forbes "Celebrity 100" list of actors, singers, athletes and others, ranked for their combination of entertainment-related earnings and media visibility.

The flamboyant singer, 25, took the top spot away from retiring talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey -- a slip to second place that Winfrey, 57, has only suffered thrice in the past seven lists.

"Lady Gaga beat Oprah this year because of her social media power," Forbes editor Dorothy Pomerantz told Reuters. "She can use Twitter and Facebook to work the 'little monsters' into a frenzy that leads to record sales and media attention. She's the best example of how celebrities will need to manage their careers in the coming years."

Money isn't everything on the financial magazine's list -- in that respect alone, Winfrey's estimated $290 million earnings eclipses Gaga's $90 million. But the weighted list considers a celebrity's "money ranking" as one of five categories, alongside rankings of "social," "web," "press" and "TV/radio."

Teen pop star Justin Bieber came in third. He earned $53 million through old-fashioned means such as concerts, music sales and a documentary film -- but Forbes credits his success to his YouTube hit, "Baby," stating that, "If this were 10 years ago Bieber would still be paying his dues in small clubs and schools, but thanks to the Internet, he's a sensation."

Newcomers on the list besides Bieber include singer Katy Perry (12), reality star/entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel (42), "The Dark Knight" and "Inception" filmmaker Christopher Nolan (47), actress Natalie Portman (75) and actor Mark Harmon (98).

Conspicuously missing are any of the Kardashians, who each earned tens of millions and practically live on the Internet and in the press.

Among the drop-offs were Britney Spears and "Harry Potter's" Daniel Radcliffe. The list also included supermodels Gisele Bündchen (60), Heidi Klum (83) and Kate Moss (94) and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham (88).

The magazine says its earnings estimates consist of pretax income grossed between May 1, 2010, and May 1, 2011.