Will Connery show up for James Bond’s 50th birthday party?

2012 is the 50^th anniversary of the release of the first James Bond film, Dr No, and to celebrate, MGM Studios is planning a year of events culminating in a Hollywood party where it is hoped all six of the actors that have played the superspy will be brought together for the first time.

‘Hoped’?  Well, although Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and current Bond Daniel Craig have all been invited to the event which MGM says will be “climax of a "whole year of birthday celebrations for 007 in the movies,” doubts have been raised as to whether Sir Sean will attend given his well-publicised aversion to the Bond character over the years.

Sir Sean snubbed the 40^th anniversary celebrations in 2002 and also failed to attend a 1997 memorial event for Cubby Broccoli, one of the original producers of the films. Only last year he stated that he would not attend any 50^th anniversary orientated events.

Whether or not the first actor to portray Bond on film turns up, the event is sure to be a star studded affair with many of the Bond girls such as Ursula Andress and Halle Berry also expected to be in attendance.

Daniel Craig, who will star in his third Bond film, Skyfall, later this year, said of the celebrations: “It's an astonishing record for any character to endure for five decades in showbiz but I'll bet this: the franchise is such a phenomenon that in another 50 year a whole new bunch of actors and their leading ladies will be gathering for another party when Bond becomes a centenarian."