It's probably a first for Al Pacino.

Thanks to a series of blunders, the actor was left without a seat at the world premiere of his latest film, The Merchant Of Venice, at the ongoing Venice Film Festival.

'I'm never coming back to Venice,' said producer Michael Lionello Cowan.

Chances are, a lot of people aren't, given the many gaffes that took place.

Over 200 people -- including Pacino and members of the Bulgari family that had sponsored the festival -- arrived at the screening, only to find that a computer glitch had led to their seats being sold twice. Eventually, riot police were called to calm the crowd.

There were other hassles. Like widespread delays, for instance, and overcrowding, even hoax bomb threats.

Pacino was finally given a seat several rows behind, but the commotion led to the premiere of Kate Winslet's film, Finding Neverland, being delayed.

According to sources present, Hollywood bigwigs were not amused. Harvey Weinstein, head of Miramax, jokingly said he would drown the festival director in the lagoon.

The organisers, for their part, say that they are just victims of their success. David Croff, president of the Venice Biennale, said they had put 'a Ferrari engine in an old Fiat 500.'

While the presence of big stars has attracted much bigger crowds, the infrastructure is hopelessly out of date. In fact, the main cinema was built by Mussolini in 1936 and has a capacity of just 1,000 seats.

Photograph: Getty Images