By William Keck, USA TODAYPosh Spice finally came to America Monday night in her much-hyped NBC reality special, but the nation didn't exactly roll out a red-carpeted welcome.
Victoria Beckham: Coming to America ranked second in its time period (5.1 million) behind a rerun of Wife Swap. And though it was first among ages 18-49 (2.2 million), the number wasn't impressive. (Fox's Hell's Kitchen in the next hour nearly doubled Beckham's rating.)
Entertainment Weekly senior editor Nicholas Fonseca isn't surprised. "There are plenty of people who truly don't know who she is," he says.
Us Weekly editor in chief Janice Min, who watched with her staff, agrees. "I got the sense with Posh that (interest in her) was manufactured by the media," she says. "It seems like it should be an interesting story, but it takes awhile for foreign stars to cross over here."
Neither Beckham nor her soccer star husband, David, have "done anything to make them newsworthy," Min says.
On the plus side, Fonseca believes Beckham's special showed America that she is "clearly aware of her image … but not above sending it up, which was the sweet spot that she hit."
NBC will rebroadcast the special Thursday (10 p.m. ET/PT), and that, some say, should be Beckham's reality ending.
"She's better off making appearances here and there as opposed to doing a reality show," Fonseca says. "Most people who participate in them don't come off very well."
Min suggests Beckham go the fundraising route like "so many of the famous women in Hollywood."
Her main advice to connect with the American public: warm up her image. "Everything about her looks hard and severe," Min says. "The façade she projects is very chilly, very alienating. It's the human qualities that make celebrities accessible."
6 comments:
The only thing that's a surprise is that they're surprised people didn't watch it. I'm not a TV exec. but I coud've told them that. There's no interest in Posh Spice in the U.S. and as the article notes, whenever she's photographed she looks miserable.
She is a total fem-bot freak as far as I'm concerned.
One of the few times lately I'm proud of the U.S.
I mean, her entire vibe is, "I'm a rich celebrity from Europe and I'm married to a rich famous soccer player, don't you all adore me? don't you all want to be me? Also, I'm a robot."
"And I have fake boobs. Don't you adore them too?"
actually I do.
The question I can't help asking is: what's Paris Hilton got that Posh doesn't? I'd much rather have people foolishly following a has-been British pop star married to an on-the-brink-of-has-been British soccer star than fawning over whatever the heck Paris is. Posh actually, you know, did something and she just seems more fun.
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