Academy sues after Oscar tickets fetch US$30,000

LOS ANGELES - Oscar organizers have sued several companies and 50 unknown parties for selling tickets for Hollywood's biggest award show, fetching up to US$30,000 a pair from fans longing to rub shoulders with Leonardo DiCaprio or Hilary Swank.

The suit, which involves three pairs of resold tickets, was filed last week by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It seeks to bar agencies and individuals from selling tickets to future Oscar shows and asks for damages that include a return of profits.

The lawsuit and the resale value of the coveted Oscar tickets shows the lengths to which celebrity watchers go to mix with Hollywood's elite.

David Quinto, a partner at the academy's law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, said he had heard of tickets going for as much as US$40,000 a pair.

To bar people who have bought the nontransferable tickets from resellers, Quinto's staff is stationed outside the Oscar show to clear up issues if guest identification does not match a ticket. Security officers usher out illegitimate holders.

"When you show up, you better have an I.D., or you're escorted off the red carpet," Quinto said, adding that every year there are a "couple of dozen" disputed tickets.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, names ticket resellers Musical Chairs, VIP Getaways and Stubhub Inc., as well as 50 "John Does," including a Sharon Oren, who claims to be Sharon Osbourne's limousine driver.

A spokeswoman for Osbourne, wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, said no one on Osbourne's staff recalls a Sharon Oren. The suit claims Oren sold an Oscar badge for US$500.

Filing a lawsuit against a "John Doe" allows the Academy to add defendants later if it identifies those it holds responsible, a spokeswoman for the Academy said.

According to the lawsuit, VIP Getaways' Craig Banaszewski recommended an academy investigator buy the US$30,000 pair and then put on the hard sell. The price would only go up next year, "probably to US$30,000 per person," the suit quoted him as saying.

A lawyer for Musical Chairs said he had not seen the suit and declined to comment. The other named defendants either did not return calls or could not be reached.

Quinto said the academy began closely policing ticket reselling after the 1991 Gulf War, when security officials grew concerned about potential terrorism.