A GLITTERING candlelit reception was held to celebrate Ely s latest starring role in a top Hollywood blockbuster on Sunday. Guests packed the Lady Chapel for a charity auction of unusual items, including the Other Boleyn Girl and ET film memorabilia, whi

A GLITTERING candlelit reception was held to celebrate Ely's latest starring role in a top Hollywood blockbuster on Sunday.

Guests packed the Lady Chapel for a charity auction of unusual items, including the Other Boleyn Girl and ET film memorabilia, which was followed by a candlelit procession to The Maltings, with musical entertainment from newly-formed early music group City of Ely Waits.

A screening of Tudor drama the Other Boleyn Girl then followed, which offered guests the last chance to see a film at Ely Cinema before the building closes for renovation.

Hollywood film company Universal descended on Ely Cathedral last August to film scenes for the Other Boleyn Girl, a semi-fictionalised tale of the life of Anne and Mary Boleyn, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, who plays a rather suave Henry the Eighth.

At the charity auction on Sunday, live Internet bidders competed with the throng of assembled glitterati to purchase original film cells from the Spielberg classic ET, a pew from Ely Cathedral, as well as Veuve Clicquot Trilennium Reserved Cuvee Vintage Champagne from the Dean's own wine cellar.

Auctioneer David Palmer, told the Ely Standard that the Victorian pew, made from solid oak, went for more than £300.

On the night itself, one well-wisher had laid a pig's trotter at the cathedral door, thought to be a symbol of luck and prosperity in Italian and Chinese folklore.

Sally Ann Ford, events manager at the cathedral, said: "This was the first joint venture between the Cathedral and AdeC and it was a great success. We had more than 200 guests in the Lady Chapel, and someone from Australia was bidding for a signed Aled Jones programme over the Internet."

After fierce bidding, STAR radio presenter Mark Peters was the first successful internet bidder for the ET film trailer.

Entertainment in the Cathedral's Lady Chapel was provided by dancers from the Lantern Dance Theatre, Ely's town crier, Cambridge Society of Recorder Players, and refreshments by Cambridge Breweries.

Organisers are still totting up the total, and the proceeds of the auction will be shared between the Cathedral Music Fund and ADeC (Arts Development in East Cambridgeshire) which had its council funding cut dramatically early this year.

Sponsors of the event were FCG Consultancy, Ely Tool Hire, Haddenham Galleries and Cambridge University Press as well the numerous local companies and individuals who donated items for the auction. For full details of the two organisations involved, visit www.adec.org.uk and www.cathedral.ely.anglican.org

Photos: ALASTAIR HAINES