Film aficionados watching this year's Bafta awards on 8 February should look out for interlopers.
Among the glamorous likes of nominees Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Clint Eastwood will be punters who have paid £1,500 for the privilege of being there, in contravention of the rules of the academy, which fears the starry event would be devalued if its invitation-only status is lost.
The tickets are being offered by several online "concierge" companies. Sources suggest that they are passed on to these firms by corporate sponsors, perhaps those whose entertaining budgets have been credit-crunched.
A representative of one concierge company emailed me last week to offer tickets, but wouldn't share the details of their provenance.
"I can not give you my source for tickets. They are all from marketing partners," I was told.
A Bafta spokesman says: "The tickets are not for sale through a third party. They are marked clearly that they are not for resale and access would be denied if people were found to be using them."
The Renaissance Club is another of the organisations selling tickets. It advertised access to the awards themselves and dinner.
"You will be within TV camera shots," its website boasted.
A Renaissance Club spokesman told me they secured their tickets from an organisation called Total Management. When I called Total Management, they admit to working with the Renaissance Club but deny they are offering tickets for sale, saying they just "put people in touch" with Bafta sometimes. Some moments later, a Renaissance spokesman calls back and insists they didn't mean to sell the tickets after all.
Fortunately for anyone with £1,500 to spare, a quick Google search will reveal other concierge firms still offering tickets for the same price.
