Feathers were ruffled and tiaras left askew after the organisers of a beauty pageant in HCM City reneged on a promise to present Hollywood megastar Robert Downey Jr. at an upcoming press conference.

With pictures of the goatee-aficionado on the invites, guests to the Miss & Mr Business Asia Europe awards this year were hoping for an appearance by the Iron Man himself, alongside a slew of Vietnamese VIPs rather than the rest of the Avengers crew.

Aiming to honour beauty and talent, this year’s awards tried to bring all the glitz and glamour of tinsel town to Việt Nam’s southern hub.

Unfortunately the showbiz hero was a no show, and invitees were left starkly unimpressed with a now-deleted video posted by the event’s organisers. The short clip purported to show Tony, but instead was of a Los Angeles-based impersonator hired to add a little silver screen-sheen to the awards ceremony. For reasons unknown, the press conference lacked the actor’s doppelgänger and his famous face has now been removed from press materials.

Clearly the guests hadn’t seen the latest installment of the Avengers franchise, because then they’d know there’s no coming back for the superhero, even for such a prestigious soiree. Whoops, spoiler alert. — VNS