Charging journalists to interview Brad Pitt is absurd

I just got word about Alliance Films charging reporters to interview Brad Pitt and other stars down in Cannes. Suffice to say i'm totally unimpressed.

According to several reports, Alliance Films issued the charges of up to 2500 euros to print journalists in Canada to access stars for interviews due to organizational costs. It is understandable that the distributor will incur costs, particularly when the company travels oversees to a festival like Cannes, however..(and here comes the rant) that draws a fine line which I deem ethically unnaceptable.

For one thing, right now I can tell you that paying 2500 euros for an interview has no value to the journalist or the magazine / paper in question. A simple phone call to a publicist who is being paid to promote a movie would be more than happy to get a star on the phone for 15 minutes if it means he/she gets their client 100,000 people to learn about their movie. It is in the interest of the film that stars are available to talk freely about their participation in films in order to generate buzz about it, and get more people interested to check it out. When you start charging people just to access stars, you are effectively creating your own blacklist and firewall. No journalist or paper (that I know of) would willingly pay to do this and its a slap in the face to the free press.

Lastly, it really upsets me that there are organizations that think they can charge people just to access other people. It's like having a bouncer at a club asking you to pay a bribe before they will let you in. It's disgusting. What do you think?