Al Pacino, the Oscar-winning actor, is coming to Trinity College Dublin (TCD) next Wednesday to accept the honorary patronage of the university's Philosophical Society.
Daire Hickey, president of the society, said it was a "big coup" to bring the American actor to TCD.
All 400 tickets for the event are already gone to members of the society. They were selected in a random lottery.
"Everything is sorted and we are pretty happy," he said. "It was just one of those things. We asked him and we were very, very lucky that he responded."
Mr Hickey said the actor had a particular interest in Oscar Wilde and that was one of the reasons he accepted. The 66-year-old actor played King Herod in Oscar Wilde's Salome on Broadway. Wilde studied classics at Trinity College between 1871 and 1874.
"Mr Pacino follows a long line of interesting guests," Mr Hickey said. "He follows in the footsteps of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Salman Rushdie, US senator John McCain, Bob Geldof and An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who have all collected their honorary patronage."
Pacino will receive his honorary patronage in the Edmund Burke Theatre at TCD on November 22nd at 8pm.
He will make an acceptance speech and then answer questions from the audience.
