There's no business like show business and what an expensive business it is, especially if you are on Hollywood's A-list. Variety magazine has calculated that the annual cost of living for the Cruises and Travoltas of this world is around $52m (£37.1m).

The Hollywood lifestyle means that if star actors stopped work for a couple of years, they might find royalties from their old films no longer cover their expenses. Tom Cruise's estimated £300m fortune would last the star of the Mission Impossible films 10 years.

To get by, Hollywood's elite commands, or demands, more than £14.2m per major studio production.

The most expensive purchase is a personal jet. Tom Cruise is said to have spent £20m on a Gulfstream IV jet with three cabins, a cinema and a jacuzzi. But Jim Carrey paid £29.2m for the latest Gulfstream.

And jets are not cheap to keep. John Travolta's G-II costs £1,428 to fuel and maintain for each hour that it is airborne. Keeping two pilots on standby costs another £892 per day. The thriftier star can charter a private jet for between £428 and £928 per trip.

Real estate is another expensive item on a star's shopping list. Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host, paid £35.7m for her new California seaside retreat, while Friends star Courtney Cox and her actor husband, David Arquette, bought their Malibu mansion earlier this year for £7.1m.

Filling a plush home can also be costly. Comic actor Adam Sandler reportedly parted with £464,000 to furnish his three-bedroom home in Malibu.

Maintaining and staffing the home or homes is not cheap: a chef, a must, costs up to £86,000 a year, and a butler £57,000. An estate manager would be expect to receive £105,000.

Domestic life is not cheap either for a Hollywood parent. Round the clock nannies cost at least £265 a day, and prestigious summer camps for the children are £1,000 a week.

If the exclusive home is being renovated, the stars can stay at their favourite hotel. Bungalow 5A at the Beverly Hills hotel, where Elizabeth Taylor spent six honeymoons, costs £2,907 a night and is often booked up years in advance. If your A-list credentials fail to get a night there, try the presidential suite at the Four Seasons (£3,071) where Tom Cruise is said to have headed after separating from Nicole Kidman.

Being part of Hollywood's elite also means looking good. At Barbra Streisand's favourite spa, Escondido's Golden Door, a series of therapies start at £4,089.