JK Rowling has made it into the Sunday Times Rich List 2010 in the Film and TV millionaires category!  She comes in at number 5 with a fortune of £519m.

Harry Potter creator Joanne Rowling – the richest author on the list, with an estimated wealth of £519m – has increased her fortune from the books with a hugely profitable film series.

Ms Rowling, who wrote the first of seven Harry Potter books when a struggling single mother in Edinburgh, enjoys a percentage of all royalties and merchandising. But unlike many top authors, she has refused to become a tax exile and still lives in Scotland.

JK Rowling has wrote a new article for Times Online called The single mother’s manifesto. In the article she discusses the government and her views on how single mothers are treated.  The article is a very political piece, obviously, so if you don’t want to read about Jo’s views on the current system in the UK, don’t.  Some segments are below, keep in mind there are pieces missing because I couldn’t very well post the whole thing.

Yesterday’s Conservative manifesto makes it clear that the Tories aim for less governmental support for the needy, and more input from the “third sector”: charity. It also reiterates the flagship policy so proudly defended by David Cameron last weekend, that of “sticking up for marriage”. To this end, they promise a half-a-billion pound tax break for lower-income married couples, working out at £150 per annum.Nobody who has ever experienced the reality of poverty could say “it’s not the money, it’s the message”. When your flat has been broken into, and you cannot afford a locksmith, it is the money. When you are two pence short of a tin of baked beans, and your child is hungry, it is the money. When you find yourself contemplating shoplifting to get nappies, it is the money. If Mr Cameron’s only practical advice to women living in poverty, the sole carers of their children, is “get married, and we’ll give you £150”, he reveals himself to be completely ignorant of their true situation.

But wait, some will say. Given that you have long since left single parenthood for marriage and a nuclear family; given that you are now so far from a life dependent on benefits that Private Eye habitually refers to you as Rowlinginnit, why do you care? Surely, nowadays, you are a natural Tory voter?

No, I’m afraid not. The 2010 election campaign, more than any other, has underscored the continuing gulf between Tory values and my own. It is not only that the renewed marginalisation of the single, the divorced and the widowed brings back very bad memories.

I’ve never voted Tory before … and they keep on reminding me why.

JK Rowling has made it into Good Housekeeping‘s  list of the Top 125 Women who Changed the World! The May anniversary issue, which features the 125 women, is on newsstands April 13.

JK Rowling makes the arts and entertainment section of the list of 125 women. The 44-year-old Harry Potter author is listed because: ‘Anyone who gets hundreds of millions of kids around the globe to love reading is a world-changer in our book.’

The Top 10 are:

1. Oprah Winfrey: Queen of all media
2. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Secretary of State, former First Lady, former U.S. senator
3. Mother Teresa: Missionaries of charity founder
4. Rosa Parks: Civil rights activist
5. Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady, U.S. delegate to the United Nations, human rights activist
6. Michelle Obama (May cover star): First African-American First Lady
7. Amelia Earhart: First woman to fly across the Atlantic
8. Princess Diana: Royal and humanitarian
9. Marie Curie: First woman to receive a Nobel Prize
10. Margaret Thatcher: First female Prime Minister of Britain

While at the White House yesterday, JK Rowling met some Sesame Street characters and you may see photos below!

Thanks Mugglenet!

While reading at the White House today JK Rowling answered some questions from fans about the Potter series. Here are her answers to some of them (this is not exact wording as I couldn’t hear very well):

Do you plan on writing more? “I do and I am… Sometime in the not too distant future I will bring you another book and it will not be Harry Potter.”
Who is your favorite character? Apart from Harry, Ron, Hermione, are Hagrid, Dumbledore, Lupin, and Snape.
Would you want Dobby or Winky as a house elf? Neither, because they are “creepy,” and she would rather set them free.
What is your favorite Harry Potter book? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
How did you come up with Harry Potter? Looking at cows out a train window and said to herself, “Boy who doesn’t know he’s a wizard goes to a wizarding school.”
Who did you think of after Harry? Hermione because the book started in a totally different way before. It was going to start with an explosion at Harry’s house in Godric’s Hollow.  Hermione’s  father, their next door neighbor, ran outside and saw Harry being taken from the rubble.  Hermione remembers her father telling her the story when she first meets Harry.

At 1:30, aka in a few minutes, JK Rowling will start reading at the White House. You can watch the live video below:

(removed embedded video since reading is over)
UPDATE; Thanks to SS watch the video below.