A little over year later, around 200 movers and shakers have edged their way on to the cyber socialite's online invitation list. CEOs, COOs and CFOs, keep their Palm Pilots clear for "Cocktails With Courtney". Venture capitalists and marketing executives breathe a sigh of relief when an e-invitation lands in their in-box. Assuming, that is, that they realise what they are seeing isn't real..

When Courtney Pulitzer held the first of her monthly soirees for New York's digerati, so many people RSVP'd that she had to send out a grovelling e-mail disinviting most of them. "It is an issue that crosses a number of regulatory areas - it could be a matter of inaccuracy, or undue prominence, or fairness. If it arose, we would have to consider each case on its own merits," a spokeswoman says.Trouble is, for the time being at least, the onus is on the viewer to draw any example of tampering with reality to the attention of the regulator which then would investigate retrospectively. "But it is up to the integrity of the programme-maker to do so with integrity in a way that is both responsible and accurate. The same approach must apply to any production method."It is a view which seems to be shared by the ITC, whose guidelines relate to the use of virtual imaging by advertisers - none specifically relate to editorial use. "Any form of factual programme-making involves some form of editing of events.

It's not hard to present the same situation in a number of different ways," one documentary maker explains. Rival ABC recently included a report on Congress by a reporter wearing an overcoat in front of what to viewers seemed to be the US Capitol. The entire report was taped in a studio.UK programme makers, however, doubt virtual imaging technology requires guidelines any different to the ones they already have relating to editorial balance, accuracy and fairness. "At the very least we should have pointed out to viewers we were doing it,'' he told the New York Times. "I did not grasp the possible ethical implications of this and that was wrong on my part.''CBS is not the only broadcaster to use this technology in news broadcasts. The broadcaster - which has also used virtual imaging to modify the New York cityscape - defended itself by insisting: "CBS News' internal standards prohibit digital manipulation or other faking of news footage."However, a CBS spokeswoman admitted that virtual insertion technology is yet to be covered by the broadcaster's guidelines But Dan Rather, for one, thinks it should be.