The Forbes Fictional 15

According to Forbes, the super-rich fascinates us all. Now they have taken fictional characters and elevated them to the status of real people.

It is a dynamic list of 15, with new entries and individual drop offs.

List Leaders (9-5-07)

1 Santa Claus
2 Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks
3 Richie Rich
4 Lex Luthor
5 C. Montgomery Burns
6 Scrooge McDuck
7 Jed Clampett
8 Bruce Wayne
9 Thurston Howell III
10 Willy Wonka 1
1 Arthur Bach 1
2 Ebenezer Scrooge
13 Lara Croft
14 Cruella De Vil
15 Lucius Malfoy


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DROP OUT: Jay Gatsby
Source: Racketeering
Marital Status: Single
Hometown: West Egg, N.Y.
Bootleg kingpin found brutally murdered at his Long Island estate; story dominates New York tabloids for weeks. Born James Gatz in North Dakota; moved East; changed name.

In life, Gatsby famous for huge, P. Diddy-esque parties; home modeled after Normandy's Hotel de Ville. Shadowy fortune appears to have come entirely from racketeering. Though one associate claimed Jay "would never so much look at a friend's wife," whispers suggest otherwise. West Egg mansion taken over by the state, being turned into a public park. Member since 1925. -- Matthew Herper


http://www.forbes-fictional-rich_cx_mn_de_05fict15land.html

Vincent Van Cloth

Vincent Van Cloth
By Martin Bailey


Vincent van Gogh was notorious for always being short of money and materials, and it has now been discovered that he resorted to painting on tea towels. Louis van Tilborgh, a curator at the Van Gogh Museum, found that the artist used this unorthodox material for two groups of pictures.

On 16 November 1889, Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo from the asylum at St-Rémy, saying that he had finished his supply of canvas, and needed a further ten metres. The roll did not arrive from Paris until three weeks later.

A detailed examination of two pictures from this period has revealed that Van Gogh painted on tea towel or tablecloth material for The Large Plane Trees (Cleveland Museum of Art) and Wheatfields in a Mountainous Landscape (Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo).

The off-white fabric has a grid pattern of tiny red rectangles, which are just visible where the paint is thin. We can only speculate, but presumably the tea towels were from the asylum’s kitchen or refectory.

Complete Story
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=4547

The Large Plane Trees ( http://www.clevelandart.org/oci/mids...7/1947.209.jpg )

The Wheat fields in a mountainous landscape (http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20100.44...-berglandschap)