Posh Beckham gets ticket to ride in America, critics say fine, but not on TV
By Courtney Lear
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 7/16/07 — Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham is proud to be an honorary American, though it looked like it might a short, rocky relationship at first. She was soundly booed by U.S. media as a snobby manipulator when she tried to get them to sign a stifling pre-interview contract and husband David was briefly booed at his press conference for calling soccer “football.”
However, when Hollywood Today interviewed her (no contract), it turns out Posh is a fairly sweet, funny Soccer mom. She is probably going to enjoy being just one of the thousands of paparazzi targets in Hollywood, rather than the only one in Madrid, where she has lived for four years with David while he was on the soccer team Real Madrid. Even their other home in London didn’t have this sort of A-list competition for lenses, so L.A. allows her to be as big or discreet as she cares to be. Most locals aren’t impressed with fame in the town that invented it.
“Myself and David, we look at LA and see you’ve got so many big stars here with your Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies so we were actually quite shocked that anyone was that bothered or even really aware we were coming. Everyone was really positive,” she said.
Her reality show was downgraded from a series order from NBC to just a single special, “Victoria Beckham: Coming to America” chronicled the move across the pond, star-style wifery and the long-gossiped about Spice Girls reunion.
NBC just might be glad it did. Her show was savagely trashed by most critics with the New York Post calling the show her relentlessly “self-promoting and condescending” as well as “an orgy of self-indulgence so out of whack with reality that you will sit there slack-jawed that these people think we are that stupid.”
NBC Co-chairman Marc Graboff spoke about the change from six-episode series to one special “They looked at the material and it just wasn’t enough for a series.” He did leave the door open for more though, saying he would look at not only ratings but demographics and audience reaction, and “if it was strong and positive, then we may do some more.”
Otherwise its NBC-bye for her, and she’ll be able to get some shopping in before the rest of the Spice Girls arrive in L.A. for rehearsals. The reunion of the Spice Girls would be enough for another special or limited series, though that would take a very different kind of contract with all the members. The common ground here is Simon Fuller, manager of the Spice Girls and producer of Posh’s would-be TV series as well as the mega-hit “American Idol.”
The Brit It couple received a warm welcome at LAX last week, even if it was more paparazzi than fans.
Are Americans that chipper or are Brits bleak by comparison? Either way, Posh gushed about the well-to-do attitudes of her new fellow countrymen.
“We love the people here. I love the fact that everyone seems incredibly positive. That’s a fantastic message to give to young children so we’re excited about bringing up our children in America,” she said.
Although the Beckhams will be far from home Posh insisted that the distance won’t separate friends and family and certainly won’t put a damper on the pitter-patter of feet around the house.
“I think that the problem we’re really going to have is getting rid of all our friends and family because they’re all going to want to come over here and stay because they all love it so much. We both have huge families and we’re very close to them. We love to have a full house with kids running everywhere, as long as they don’t run on my new carpet I don’t mind,” she said.
In addition to her housewife and motherly instincts coming out of the primp and proper red carpet strutter part of the allure of the show will certainly be seeing the Brits acclimate to life in a different world.
“There are differences but we’re enjoying them. We don’t think there’s anything to not like about LA. The weather’s great, the people are great. This is just so exciting for us,” she said.
Posh also hopes that the tongue-in-cheek “humour” translates to American audiences.
“There’s a very dry ironic sense of British humor running through it, which I hope everybody understands. I don’t really sunbathe in high heels full face of makeup and a bikini,” she said. It just goes to show I don’t take myself too seriously.”
The main treat for fans will be the Spice Girls reunion. The complete spice rack; Scary, Sporty, Ginger and Baby, will join Posh in LA to begin rehearsing in November for their short six-continent stint that starts Dec. 7 in L.A.
“We didn’t know how anybody was going to take it, we didn’t know if anybody still wanted to see the Spice Girls so it’s just been huge. We’re going to give everybody an amazing show,” Posh said. “We never got the opportunity to finish it off properly and thank our fans. This is the last opportunity anyone will get to see us as a group cause then that will be it.”
Even David is starting to sound like a real American. One of his first outings in L.A. was to “Toys R Us” and he said he chose Number 23 for his L.A. Galaxy jersey because that was basketball superstar Michael Jordan’s number.