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Becks Defaced
Just how angry are some Brits at soccer star David Beckham for missing a crucial penalty shot in the painful loss to Portugal that marked the end of the U.K.'s run in the Euro 2004 tournament? We'd say they're bloody spitting tacks (or something like that). One unhappy bloke went so far as to scrawl "you loosers" (sic) in red pen across a photo portrait of Becks in London's Royal Academy of Art. "The whole point of the exhibition was to marry football and art," says show curator David Grob. "It's very upsetting that a football hooligan would go and take his bloody pen out." Indeed. Some British tabloids have speculated that the spelling of the graffiti is a reference to former assistant Rebecca Loos, who claims to have had an affair with Beckham (he denies it), but Grob disagrees. "I think it's just a completely incompetent moron. I don't think anyone that did that would be deep enough to make those kinds of connections."
Caught in the Act
Recently Spotted:
• Bill Clinton, at the Tumi store in New York's Time Warner center, with an entourage. Since he was with so many people, he just said hello and left. Not so for Jessica Simpson, who took the time to buy Tumi suitcases, duffles and a garment bag.
• Paris Hilton, David LaChapelle, Rebecca Romjin-Stamos, Garry Shandling, Sean Hayes, Paul Rudd, Horatio Sanz, Marley Shelton and Jeremy Piven, at a GQ party feting Will Ferrell in the penthouse of L.A.'s famed Chateau Marmont. Romjin-Stamos, Hilton and Shandling left the party for the Concorde nightclub.
• Josh Duhamel, Russell Simmons, Rebecca Gayheart, Anthony Michael Hall, Val Kilmer, Penelope Ann Miller and director-producer Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), at the Playboy Mansion for a gala and auction benefiting Best Buddies, Anthony Kennedy Shriver's charity. Ratner served as the emcee of the live auction, which included a "VIP" set visit and walk-on in his next movie (Kilmer, sitting next to a blonde Bunny, bid $8,000 for it). Olympian Carl Lewis brought in $10,000 for a private training session, with the condition that he remove his shirt (he did).
• Paris and Nicky Hilton, at a sample sale in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon over the weekend. Paris scooped up a pile of Ladies of the Canyon clothes and, taking a liking to the Splendid brand tank tops, said, "I'll take one in every color."
• Prince, at Chicago's Vision Nightclub after his packed concert at Allstate Arena, before rescheduling his four remaining Windy City shows due to a death in the family of one of his band members. The Purple One and his party of eight danced in Vision's lower-level Lair, played pool, and mingled with the crowd until the club closed at 4 a.m. Though Prince doesn't drink (he's a Jehovah's Witness), our spies tell us he tipped the bartenders anyway.
• Scrubs star Zach Braff, at Chicago's Le Passage club two nights in a row until 4 a.m., hanging out with owner and Chicago nightlife guru Billy Dec. Braff is in town promoting his new indie film and directorial debut, Garden State, also starring Natalie Portman.
• By COURTNEY RUBIN, MEREDITH NADLER, KWALA MANDEL and SARAH PRESTON
