One of Italy’s best-known actresses has been found guilty of using a fake sick note to avoid having to take part in a public engagement so she could instead attend a dinner with Vladimir Putin and a string of Hollywood celebrities.

Ornella Muti, a former model who has appeared in many films including Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love, was supposed to give a recital in the town of Pordenone in 2010 but instead cancelled and flew to St Petersburg for the lavish gala dinner.

The event, for a children’s charity, was also attended by Gerard Depardieu, Monica Bellucci, Goldie Hawn and Sharon Stone.

Ms Muti has been given a suspended six month prison sentence and ordered to pay a fine of €500 (£445) by Italy’s Supreme Court.

She will also have to pay compensation of €30,000 to the Verdi theatre in Pordenone, which had been due to stage her performance. If she fails to pay the compensation, she will go to prison.

The court in Rome upheld the rulings of two lower courts, which had found Ms Muti guilty of attempted fraud.

The drawn-out legal process is now at an end and the sentence definitive.

Ms Muti had claimed that she had chronic laryngitis and a high fever when she pulled out of the recital at the theatre in Pordenone, in the northern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.