Never too rich or too dead

His new movie may have made $2.2 million on its opening night, but Michael Jackson isn’t the richest dead celebrity.

That honor goes to French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, according to Forbes magazine.

Laurent, who died of brain cancer in 2008, earned $350 million in the past year. Much of his estate was auctioned off in February.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein rank second with combined earnings of $235 million, followed by Jackson with $90 million, Elvis Presley with $55 million and J.R.R. Tolkien with $50 million.

Charles Schulz, John Lennon, Theodor Geisel, Albert Einstein and Michael Crichton round out the top 10.

A real wake-up call

Speaking of Michael Jackson, an associate says the reason he had trouble sleeping – which led to his drug-related death – was that he didn’t want to miss out on divine inspiration.

“He’d say, ‘When the phones stop ringing at night, that’s when I can have really, really great thoughts. I’m not being interrupted. I can just be one with God,’ ” recalls Travis Payne, associate director-choreographer of Jackson’s planned “This Is It” comeback tour.

“In his mind,” Payne says, “if he went to sleep, he would miss those ideas.”

Living the nightmare

Patrick Swayze’s widow says the loss of her husband of 34 years has left her with sadness “on a cellular level.”

Lisa Niemi, in her first public comments since Swayze’s death last month from pancreatic cancer, said at a California women’s conference Tuesday that her pain makes “all the sadness and grief previous to that look like an intellectual concept.”

The birthday bunch

Singer-actress Melba Moore is 64. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 62. Actress Kate Jackson is 61. Singer Randy Jackson (The Jacksons) is 48. Actress Joely Fisher is 42. Actress Winona Ryder is 38. Actress Gabrielle Union is 36.