Let’s go to the ball!

Former James Bond star Roger Moore and Danish actress Brigitte Nielsen will be Austrian entrepreneur Richard Lugner’s special guests at this year’s Opera Ball in Vienna.

The 79-year-old Mr Lugner makes headlines in Austria every year by inviting celebrities to the ball, the highlight of Vienna’s social calendar with tickets starting at €250 and boxes going for as much as €18,500.

His previous guests have included actresses Andie MacDowell and Faye Dunaway, although in recent years, Mr Lugner has favoured starlets and scandal-sheet regulars like party-girl Paris Hilton.

Last year Karima El Mahroug, the teenage Moroccan woman known as “Ruby the Heart-Stealer” who was at the centre of a sex scandal involving former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was on his arm.

“I look forward to coming to Vienna,” Ms Nielsen, 48, said in a video message at a press conference in the Austrian capital, confirming she would attend the February 16 ball.

The former wife of action star Sylvester Stallone, Ms Nielsen appeared in films like Rocky IV and Beverly Hills Cop II in the 1980s and most recently in the German production of the reality show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

Sir Roger, 84, and his wife will also join Mr Lugner in his box, the Austrian said, adding that “lots of women go crazy for him”.

Top model Helena Christensen, 43, will also attend the ball as a guest of lingerie company Triumph.