Who needs money? See what bartering brings you

Diamonds and movies have had a special relationship both on and off-screen since films first flickered into life.

At every film premiere there's a parade of rocks on the red carpet, and if you think of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or diamond heist movies, sometimes the jewels even take a starring role.

Now a new element has been introduced to this relationship because a short film to be released on 16 November was shot recently in London with a cast and crew who are being paid only in jewels.

This slick five-minute film, The Letter, was directed by Laurence Dunmore (Johnny Depp's director in The Libertine) and stars Bafta-winner Thandie Newton with Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs.

I could go on about the beautiful shots by John Mathieson, the cameraman on Gladiator, but you get the picture — this was a Hollywood production albeit for a mini-movie.

This team of A-listers, whose agents in Tinseltown usually haggle over million-dollar contracts, have swapped their creative talents on this West End film for pieces from the new Stoned collection by designer Solange Azagury Partridge.

"It was a friends and family project," explains Newton. "Solange is a really good friend who reached out to the people she knows; The Letter is a witty story with a twist."

Azagury Partridge has an über-cool showroom in Westbourne Grove where the cast will go to choose their salary.

"I told them I could only pay in jewellery," she explains, "so the guys are getting something for their missuses."

And Newton? "I've got my eye on a ring called Fruitbomb," she says. "I've been gloating to girlfriends that I'll have something I'd never usually buy because I'd always spend the money on the kids or put it in the bank."

Would Newton consider bartering for anything other than jewels? "Shoes," she jokes, "possibly art."

The closest she has come to this arrangement previously was when Merchant Ivory couldn't pay her for a project. "Ismail Merchant gave a banquet for me instead," she says, "but there were several guests of honour, so I don't think I was the only one who didn't get paid."

In The Letter, Newton plays a woman who leaves her husband taking all of her jewellery apart from her engagement ring — but then has a change of heart.

Newton loved the fact that she got to influence the script. "I don't usually get control on a movie set but I didn't like the story's original ending. So we talked and agreed to a new one, which is sexy and unexpected."