Beckham's American Dream Dashed

If Terry Byrne was Beckham’s best friend, Cruise and Holmes had turned into the Beckhams’ favorite couple. Victoria had attended the Cruise/Holmes wedding in Italy (David missed out due to soccer commitments), and Cruise and Holmes had sat with Victoria in the stands at Beckham’s title-clinching last game at Real Madrid before staying out to celebrate until 6 A.M. the next day. When Victoria picked the Beckhams’ house on San Ysidro Drive in Beverly Hills, it was less than five minutes from their new neighbors, Cruise and Holmes. David even acknowledged that Cruise had influenced the decision to name the Beckhams’ third son Cruz. “I must admit, when we met Tom, I remember turning around to Victoria and saying, ‘Cruise is a great name, but we could spell it different,’” Beckham told me. “And also living in Spain, Cruz spelled the way it is in Spanish. So that’s why we got it.”

Did Beckham have any interest in joining Cruise as a Scientologist? “No,” Beckham told me. “It’s something obviously I respect, because Tom’s explained to me and Victoria what it’s all about, but he’s never turned around to us and said, ‘That is what you should be doing,’ because he would never do that.”

Of course, the more time the Beckhams spent with Cruise and Holmes, the more skeptics questioned whether Cruise saw David’s vast global appeal as a potential vehicle to spread the message of the Church of Scientology. Cruise was a vocal believer in Scientology, the controversial faith founded by the science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and Holmes had become a Scientologist before marrying Cruise. The faith had gained a measure of popularity in Hollywood—members included John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, and Lisa Marie Presley—but in some countries (Germany, for one) government officials viewed the church as a dangerous cult. Did David Beckham have any interest in joining Cruise as a Scientologist? “No,” Beckham told me. “It’s something obviously I respect, because Tom’s explained to me and Victoria what it’s all about, but he’s never turned around to us and said, ‘That is what you should be doing,’ because he would never do that. He and Katie have their beliefs, and I totally respect that, but me and Victoria have also got our own.”

In Beckham’s interactions with Cruise, at least one conversion had taken place, however. “I think Tom’s getting into soccer,” Beckham said, flashing a wide smile. “He’ll send me a message after every game that I’ve played now, and he’ll say: What an amazing game!” If Beckham could have the same effect on a few million other Americans, then the Beckham Experiment might just have a chance.

That Cruise had flown all the way from Berlin to attend the party suggested how important the occasion was for him. Yet the presence of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith as headlining cohosts was more puzzling. Will Smith was one of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood, an entertainer blessed with reservoirs of charisma, but neither he nor his wife had more than a cursory relationship with the Beckhams, and nothing close to the ties that Cruise and Holmes had. Although Cruise and Holmes would regularly be seen with the Beckhams in the months ahead—hosting them at their home in Telluride, Colorado; spending Thanksgiving together in New York City; joining them in Napa Valley wine country to celebrate Victoria’s birthday—the Smiths were rarely, if ever, spotted with the Beckhams by the paparazzi that constantly followed them.

The main bond that Will Smith did share with the Beckhams—and with Cruise and Holmes—was their representation by the Creative Artists Agency. CAA was the most respected and feared talent agency in Hollywood, with clients that included Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, and George Clooney, among dozens of other A-listers. In large part due to its relationship with Simon Fuller, it was crucial for CAA to ensure that the Beckhams made as big a splash as possible upon their arrival in the United States. On July 16, CAA had hosted a welcoming bash for David at its new Century City headquarters, an eight-floor, $400 million building that people in the movie business had nicknamed The Death Star. (CAA employees were reportedly instructed beforehand to line the staircase and clap for Beckham upon his arrival.) And while it was fun to imagine that Holmes and the Smiths had made all the arrangements for the following week’s party as cohosts, CAA had in fact organized the event and handled all the preparations, including the gold-embossed invitations.

When you’re the most powerful agency in Hollywood, there are no limits to how much you can orchestrate when it comes to hosting a party for David and Victoria Beckham—most of all the celebrity guest list, which was almost entirely CAA-affiliated talent. It was glitz by association, a classic case study on how to package foreign stars as A-list American celebrities. Yet when U.S. viewers saw breathless coverage of the party leading off the following night’s editions of Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, the word “CAA” was never mentioned. What they saw was “the party to end all parties, welcoming the Beckhams to the upper stratosphere of Hollywood,” highlighted by the money shot: David and Victoria posing with Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Somewhere, Simon Fuller smiled.