David Beckham 'portrays himself as the victim' in Netflix series, Rebecca Loos says

The Beckham are so rich and sucessful I wonder why they felt the need to make this documentary.
It s not good to make yourself look too good .

You have to be doing something don’t matter how rich you are, even if it is just courting controversy.

They do things all the time .
They go on holiday ,Mrs B ‘designs ‘ ( she doesn’t really ) horrible clothes that no one would be seen dead in .
He does a lot for children’s charities
Making a Netflix documentary is a bit narcissistic

Well, that “doofus sidekick” has appeared in over 60 films and over 50 TV series, directed 12 films, produced 30, won an Academy award and dated Michelle Pfeiffer from 1989 until 1992 so he must have had something going for him.

He also found time to act in and direct more than 50 stage productions, on and off Broadway.

When David Beckham asked Leonardo DiCaprio who should direct the documentary series about his life and career, Fisher Stevens was the director that he recommended.

Well, they’re only worth $500m so another $16m from the TV series takes them towards billionaire status … :man_shrugging:

I think they are already billionaires .
They have a yacht that worth hundreds of thousands and extensive properties .

David Beckham’s financial success gains further perspective when we consider his combined wealth with his wife, Victoria Beckham. Together, they boast a staggering $514 million in wealth, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. While David’s personal net worth stands at around $450 million, Victoria’s is estimated at approximately $70 million.

Read more at:

Last Updated: Oct 14, 2023

Sorry, I’ve no idea what are you talking about - what is an “avid believer” and what am I supposed to avidly believe in? And how did you reach that conclusion based on my last post?
:rofl:

1 Like

You are, therefore, showing a keen interest (avid) … :neutral_face:

You “do not think there is any grounds so far for suggesting it was whitewashed” - hence, seeing is believing … :man_shrugging:

Big leap from my statement to saying I am an “avid believer” though - that sounds like the tabloid-type hyperbole!

At least I’m expressing an opinion based on what I have actually watched - whereas some folk have expressed an opinion on it without even watching any of the TV series at all (e.g. Janet Street Porter slams it but says she will not watch any of it)
Personally, if I hadn’t watched a programme, I wouldn’t feel qualified to give an opinion on it - most reviewers at least watch the programme first!

1 Like

IMO, JSP’s reason is valid:

I’m not interested in is a PR manicured portrait of their marriage and their relationship, which, at the end of the day, the press only give us one view of the Beckhams – but the Beckhams only give us what they want us to see.”

Brand Beckham is so remunerative that its image is meticulously curated by Beckham’s business management, which, AFAIK, is still headed up by David Gardner.

Yes. I got the impression from what David Beckham and his friends said on the episodes I’ve seen so far that the Beckhams were cultivating a carefully manicured brand from quite early in his footballing career, with an eye on establishing the Beckham Brand and expanding on it after his career in football was over.
He makes no secret of it in the interviews.

I can’t see what the fuss is over this Netflix series - even if it is the story presented from the Beckham’s point of view or the narrative they want to project, that’s what most memoirs of famous people are, whether they are written as an autobiography or written / filmed as a collection of memoirs.

Folk can choose for themselves whether to watch or read it - I just think it’s a bit odd if a person criticises something like this if they haven’t even watched it for themselves.

Anyway, I can’t say I’m invested enough in the life of celebrities to take more than a passing interest, so I have no wish to keep defending my opinion of the episodes I have watched - so if I do get round to watching the last 2 episodes, I won’t sully this thread with any more mildly supportive comments. I’ll leave you to enjoy your avid criticism of the Beckhams! :wink:

1 Like

I’m not criticising the Beckhams - they are what they are … “stoking the star-maker machinery” … :man_shrugging:

However, as a avid viewer (and checker) of “proper” documentaries, I am supportive of Rebecca Loos and her POV, i.e. that “Beckham” glosses over an “alleged” marital misdemeanour that Victoria said “was the worst time of her life”. If the Beckhams are withholding the truth about David’s affair with Rebecca (apparently a non-event) then what else in the series is being “manicured” for worldwide presentation … :017:

One side of a celebrity “story” might suit some … and NetFlix are making a habit of providing one-sided celebrity stories (e.g. “Harry & Meghan”) alongside their historical distortions … :roll_eyes:

Personally, I prefer truth and accuracy in any video presentation labelled “documentary” … :slightly_smiling_face:

He’s done very well,considering his only talent was kicking a football.

A television series with a heavily controlled narrative is the latest way for celebrities to embellish their image

crunch game against Greece entering stoppage time, the team desperately needed to score, when their captain (Beckham) was fouled about 25 yards from goal.

David Beckham, then 26, dusted himself off, stepped up with his wand of a right foot, rifled the ball into the top left corner and sent the fans at Old Trafford into delirium with a goal for the ages.

At least, that is what Netflix and the makers of the hit documentary about the former England captain want you to think. In reality, it was Beckham’s team-mate Teddy Sheringham who was fouled by Kostas Konstantinidis in the 92nd minute, winning the crucial set piece.

Scrutiny by The Sunday Times has found several such editing sleights of hand and continuity errors that have been crafted into the perfect narrative to show Beckham’s rise, fall and rise again as he became world football’s biggest star.

These tweaks illustrate just how carefully managed a PR exercise this wildly popular documentary is. And how the entire documentary industry is being reshaped by celebrities.

Beckham speaks of his pride at being called up to the England squad for the first time by manager Glenn Hoddle, one of his boyhood idols, as viewers see the national team take to the field at Wembley in September 1997 to play Moldova.

Yet Beckham actually made his national team debut the previous year, 1996, in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital, where England won 3-0. No footage from that game is shown; the match we see is the one for which he earned his 10th cap.

Beckham first met Victoria Adams, his future wife, at a match he played at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium in 1997, but clips interspersed through the episode show Victoria with her Spice Girls bandmate Mel C being invited onto the pitch at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium, where they read out the winner of a half-time raffle. The footage then cuts to Beckham scoring a goal against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge some weeks earlier.

There are also clips of Beckham during his time at Real Madrid, sulking on the bench after being dropped. He is dressed in the Spanish team’s black away kit but when the camera cuts to his Brazilian team-mate Roberto Carlos, the players are now wearing its traditional white.

Then, of course, there’s the “skirting” over Rececca Loos and dramatization of the “red card” incident. No doubt there will be more “discrepancies” to come.

Although it is directed by Fisher Stevens, the highly regarded documentary film-maker (1) and actor best known for playing the slimy PR man Hugo Baker in Succession, those looking for anything approaching unvarnished truth in series such as Beckham will be left disappointed.

(1) If Stevens is so good then the “discrepancies” are not mistakes but (clumsy) attempts to beguile the innocent with a fantasy.

“People don’t care too much about the facts, it is more about how people feel about the story,” says Mark Borkowski, the veteran celebrity publicist. Shows such as The Osbournes and The Kardashians blazed a trail for the likes of Beckham and Coleen Rooney to follow, he adds. “There has been an evolution, and now you have got hagiographies in celluloid - facts and fiction merged into one.”

If that’s what the people want then that’s what the people deserve, I guess … :thinking:

Does it matter what shirt he was wearing or exactly when David first met Victoria, or the lead up to a goal scored ?
it’s meant to be entertaining not a A level exam paper .

1 Like

Not to you, obviously, and not to millions of others … :man_shrugging:

Believers will accept fiction as fact - the hagiography becomes the biography …:angel:

Of course, distorting the truth doesn’t necessarily do favours to those included (or excluded) … :thinking:

Posh stokes the fantasy:

David forced Victoria to admit that she was not from a working class family

Victoria was speaking about her upbringing in one clip and mentioned that she was very “working class”. But viewers saw that David was not prepared to let her misrepresentation go unnoticed. Opening the door of a room close by, David shouted: “Be honest”.

Victoria was happy to skip past her blunder but the former footballer was insistent. He asked her: “What car did your dad drive you to school in?” And as she attempted to answer his question in a non-direct way, he interrupted her to say: “No, one answer”.

And it was only after a few minutes of the exchange that Victoria revealed that her dad would drive her to school in a Rolls-Royce. No sooner had she come clean, David then said “thank you”.

Inverse snobbery from Posh in an attempt to establish the “rise from 'umble beginnings” myth … :roll_eyes:

I think you’re being over harsh
After all they did meet he did score the goal and does it matter if the film showed him wearing the wrong shirt for a particular match.
I actually enjoyed the scene where Beckham got Posh to fess up over her fathers Roller, very typical of husband and wife.
All all thought they were candid, I enjoyed it although it was over long .

1 Like

NetFlix are delighted that millions enjoyed the Beckham fairy story - next, Posh does the Spice girls … but not necessarily warts’n’all … :fairy:

1 Like