CIA routinely recruits Hollywood stars as spies

A long-time CIA employee has revealed that movie stars are sometimes used as spies to gather information.

John Rizzo, who was a lawyer for the intelligence agency for 33 years, has written a tell-all book called Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA.

In it, he claims that celebrities make great spies, saying that their power and international celebrity can be valuable, News.com.au reported.

In the book, which has just been released, Rizzo recounts the time a high-profile actor approached the agency to offer up his services, but there was a slight catch.

In a meeting with the actor's agency handler, Rizzo was told that the actor refuses to take any money, but instead wanted them to score the best 50,000-dollar stash of cocaine they could find.

The answer was no, but the actor agreed to help out the CIA anyway.