“It’s such an underworld in a way, the celebrity wrangling,” said Vanessa Bismarck, a New York-based fashion publicist whose firm, BPCM, represents labels like Preen and Azzaro. She was referring to the deals, trades and exclusive contracts — first-class airfare, hotel rooms for friends, per diems, designer boutique shopping sprees — that miraculously clear a path to the front row for a busy actress. This is especially the case in Paris and Milan, where budgets and appetites for celebrities are that much bigger.

“Their managers and agents realize fashion shows are a money-making opportunity,” said Roger Padilha, whose firm MAO Public Relations represents a number of fashion brands. “If you see an A-list star at a show, that’s because she’s making $100,000 on the deal.”

Yet this season, because of the economy and a general souring on celebrity, many designers are taking a budget approach to V.I.P.’s, paying only for a guest’s outfit for the show and maybe grooming and car-service expenses. A publicist for several New York designers said his clients had been approached by actresses in Los Angeles willing to grace their front rows — provided travel expenses were covered. The designers said no thanks. “Nobody has the money,” the publicist said.

Last season, Ms. Lively, a Gossip Girl, was considered a good get. This week, according to Mr. Padilha, “Sandra Bullock is the get. Even more so than Anne Hathaway.” (Ms. Hathaway, a clotheshorse, made her most recent front-row appearance in January at Giorgio Armani’s haute couture show in Paris. Ms. Bullock is a favorite to win an Oscar for her role in “The Blind Side.”)

The actress Laura Linney is expected to attend Mr. Kors’s show, Mr. Daley said. Also on guest lists, according to KCD, a publicity and show production company, are the actress Zoe Saldana, the singer Maxwell and Alexa Chung, the former MTV host who has her own namesake bag from Mulberry.

Image SCENE-STEALERS Paris Hilton may fit the couture mold a little better than members of the cast of “Jersey Shore,” from left, Jenni Farley, Mike Sorrentino, Pauly Delvecchio and Nicole Polizzi. Credit... Mark Davis/Picture Group

Maybe the blunt mercantile aspects of celebrity — your frock for my recognizable face — have turned off the taste-makers. On Wednesday, Mr. Jacobs’s business partner, Robert Duffy, told Style.com that no celebrities were being invited to the designer’s show on Monday, a reversal of years of packing rappers in with famous artists and actors. Mr. Duffy said that “the celebrity thing” had become a bore.