The BBC has been accused of hypocrisy after grilling Hollywood actress Jodie Foster about stars’ pay – while refusing to disclose how much its own on-screen talent takes home.

In a tense interview, arts editor Will Gompertz repeatedly asked Foster how much George Clooney and Julia Roberts were paid to appear in the new movie she directed.

But MPs said the exchange at the Cannes Film Festival, screened during the Ten O’Clock News on Friday, smacked of double standards.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘It’s the hypocrisy of the BBC – asking someone else how much they are paying people when it has strenuously resisted transparency on how it spends its money.

‘The Jodie Foster film has been funded privately, but the BBC is getting taxpayers’ money. It should reveal how much it is paying people when they make £150,000 – or more than the Prime Minister – every year.’

Under proposals in last week’s White Paper, the Corporation will have to publish the names of anyone paid more than £450,000 in ‘broad bands’ – a move that had been fiercely resisted by the Corporation.

In his interview, Gompertz, 50, repeatedly asked Foster about the salaries Clooney and Roberts had received to appear in Money Monster, and whether they were paid the same.

Foster initially tried to laugh off the questions but when Gompertz persisted, she said: ‘I would never tell you that.’ But Gompertz insisted his questioning tapped into the issue of sexism in Hollywood.

He also pointed out that her movie was ‘about journalists interrogating their subject properly to get to the truth and you are not helping me here’.

Gompertz ended his report by saying: ‘That exchange was a bit like the movie itself: tense, interesting, in its way revealing, but ultimately a bit disappointing.’

The BBC last night said: ‘Will was doing his job. The interview was clearly about journalistic integrity and about equality in Hollywood. In that context, asking whether the two main actors were paid the same amount was a legitimate question.’

Gompertz was appointed arts editor in 2009 on a reported starting salary of £150,000, although he later denied it was that much.

Last year he described his home as ‘a crummy 1940s house in Oxford’ – although Land Registry documents show he bought it for £1million in 2005.

In his interview, Gompertz, 50, repeatedly asked Foster about the salaries Clooney and Roberts had received to appear in Money Monster, and whether they were paid the same.