Roll Call: The Beckhams Get A Bash & Rowling Bashes Reviewers

Your Daily Dispatch of Celebrity Shenanigans: July 20, 2007 by Tommy Vergason

BECKHAM BASH!: Hollywood royalty are rolling out the red carpet for David & Victoria Beckham at a “Welcome to America” party this weekend. Beckham pals Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes and Will & Jada Pinkett-Smith organized the lavish, private shindig, scheduled for this Sunday evening in Los Angeles. Access Hollywood obtained one of the email invitations sent out to guests, which states: “Please join Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes and Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith in welcoming David & Victoria Beckham to Los Angeles.” The party will be held in the Geffen Contemporary at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art Sunday at 9:30 PM, according to the invite. Reported A-listers on the guest list include Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Jim Carrey, Steven Spielberg, and various studio bigwigs. Those hoping to attend will be out of luck unless they receive an official invitation, and anyone hoping to capture party moments on film will be sorely disappointed: “No cameras please,” the invitation states. The Beckhams moved to the U.S. from Europe this past weekend, in light of David’s new position with the LA Galaxy professional soccer team. His big debut game against Chelsea is scheduled for Saturday, but Beckham told ESPN yesterday that he may not be able to play due to an ankle injury. “I’m still having a lot of treatment. At the moment it doesn’t look good that I’m going to play because the swelling is still there,’’ Beckham said during an interview during the ESPN2 telecast. “I’m here for five years. I’m not here just obviously for the game on Saturday.” Hopefully, his ankle will be well enough to get him to Sunday’s party!

DAVID’S DOSE OF REALITY: In related news: David is following in wife Victoria’s footsteps by starring in his own reality show, PEOPLE reports. The show, entitled “David Beckham’s Soccer USA,” is being produced by “American Idol” producer Simon Fuller for the Fox Soccer Channel. While Victoria’s reality outing was confined to one NBC special, David’s show will reportedly contain 13 episodes, the first of which is scheduled for next Wednesday. “David Beckham’s arrival is a tremendous milestone in U.S. soccer history,” FOX rep David Sternberg reportedly said. “[The series] will provide an insider’s look at his performance with the Los Angeles Galaxy.” Despite the reality show, David reportedly has no desire to become an actor or jump into show business. “[David] really has no intentions in Hollywood,” his publicist, Glenn Lehrman, told the LA TIMES. “He came over here to play soccer and work with kids, his two big passions.” But movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer sees the potential in Beckham as a Hollywood star. “He’s certainly handsome and has movie-star looks,” he is quoted as saying. “He’s a big enough celebrity that TV will love him and, if he can act, he’d be a major player in the movies.”

LENNOX’S LEGION OF CHARITABLE STARS: Some major female players of the music scene are joining Annie Lennox to record a charity single benefiting the treament and prevention of HIV/AIDS, BBC NEWS reports. 23 artists have agreed to contribute their voices to Lennox’s song, “Sing,” including: Madonna, Shakira, Joss Stone, Dido, Celine Dion, Pink, Fergie, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge and Lennox’s fellow Scottish star KT Tunstall. The song will reportedly raise funds for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), whose own vocal group The Generics inspired Lennox to create the track for her “Songs of Mass Destruction” album, debuting in October. Lennox reportedly wrote the song after her work with Nelson Mandela’s 46664 charity concert in 2005, which was staged to highlight awareness of the plight of women living with HIV and Aids.

DOOLITTLE DISHES: The “American Idol” finalists are now well into their national tour, and TV GUIDE spoke with second runner-up Melinda Doolittle about life so far on the road. “It is so much fun! We’re having a blast,” the pint-sized powerhouse reportedly said. When asked if the tour was everything she hoped it would be, Doolittle replied, “It is, and a lot more. I thought that maybe I knew what to expect because I had toured before, but it’s like night and day for me. They pay such attention to detail.” One of those “details” is the presence of a massage therapist for the performers in every city! “Oh! It’s like heaven on earth,” she is quoted as saying. “They lay you down on a table and they’re like, ‘What area hurts?’” Melinda also learned a new skill on tour, which will come in handy if she ever decides to take up sports. “We kind of hang out by the buses afterwards, and maybe even throw a football around. I learned how to throw a football last night. I’m very excited about that.”

HARRY POTTER AND THE ANGRY AUTHOR: “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling is definitely NOT excited about some advance reviews of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” that were published yesterday in the Boston Sun and New York Times. “I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children,” she said in a statement to REUTERS. “I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry’s last adventure for fans,” the 41-year-old added. The eagerly-anticipated book won’t be available to the public until 12:01 AM tomorrow morning, but a rep for The Boston Sun said they obtained their copy of the book “through legal and ordinary means,” and a spokeswoman for the NY Times said that their copy was bought from a store in New York City. “Our feeling is that once a book is offered up for sale at any public, retail outlet, and we purchase a copy legally and openly, we are free to review it,” the spokeswoman reportedly said. “We took great care not to give away the ending, nor to give away significant details about who lives and who dies, confining our review — which, incidentally, had extremely high praise for both this final book and the entire series — to broader-brush assessments of the tone and the writing.”

MAYER’S RED CARPET STRATEGY: John Mayer infamously befuddled Ryan Seacrest on the Grammy red carpet in February, when he responded to a question about his rumored relationship with Jessica Simpson…in Japanese. Though Ryan had no idea what had just been said to him, Mayer’s response was later reportedly translated as “She’s a lovely woman and I’m glad to be with her.” But now, he tells GQ magazine his reasoning behind his cryptic Japanese reply. “Ryan Seacrest is like my own little Richard Simmons,” he reportedly told GQ. “I like bits. I practiced that line for three days. When Ryan says, ‘You know I have to ask you’ —which is one of the dumbest prefaces of all time—I think, Maybe I’ll just answer you in Japanese. And then you’ll have to figure it out. So now I’m the guy on top.” Mayer added that his music is far morte important to him than how he’s portrayed in the media. “I do not take the outside world into my house with me. I just don’t care anymore. It’s vapor,” he is quoted as saying. “When somebody wants to take a picture of you coming out of a restaurant, it doesn’t matter. Whether you save a falling baby’s life or whether you fall yourself on the ground drunk, it’s gone, lost in the sea of DUIs and crotch shots. And it just doesn’t matter.”