Tea with Gerard Butler snubbed at Cannes auction

Gerard Butler has been snubbed at a charity auction in Cannes, France, after he offered up a tea date as a prize.

The actor was dragged up onstage at the Carnival in Cannes Gala for Haitian Relief on Friday night by writer/director Paul Haggis, in a bid to drive up the value of a a weekend pass to the 2013 Golden Globe awards in Los Angeles.

Butler was stunned when Haggis insisted the winning bidder would also get a tea date with the Scot - but it appears he won't have to give up his time after all.

The man who paid £78,125 for the package insisted he didn't want the Butler tea date.

Butler laughed off the snub, telling USA Today, "I know the guy that bought it; he didn't need to buy tea with me."

But the actor admits he didn't realise he'd be part of the package when he turned up at the auction: "No one has the ability to make a fool of me like Paul Haggis. He makes me come up and stand on stage. He makes me feel like an idiot.

"I think most of my most humiliating experiences in my whole career have been caused by Paul Haggis. He pimps me out. I put up with it because it's for a good cause."

The auction raised more than £1.25 million for Haitian charities.

It's not the first time Butler has offered up tea at a celebrity auction - Oscar winner Adrien Brody bid £9,400 for the odd item last year at a fundraiser to build a school in Haiti - and he's still waiting for a call from the 300 star.

Brody says, "I attended a charity function for Artists for Peace & Justice and one of the things they were auctioning off was tea with Gerry Butler, which I thought was really interesting, so I thought, 'Why not?' I had the winning bid and I've yet to have tea with Gerry Butler. He has not fulfilled his obligation... I paid thousands and thousands of dollars... It was, like, 15 grand."