Sweet Nothings

Let us spare a thought for poor David Beckham. It may sound odd to demand sympathy for a multimillionaire, one of the most famous men in the world and the man who may singlehandedly bring the World Cup to these shores in 2018, but Becks is a curious case. You can pour scorn on his modelling exploits, snigger at his silly voice and be frankly repulsed by his skeletal missus, but if you're an English football fan the chances are you'll be shedding a tear over the ruptured achilles that will cruelly rob him of the chance at glory in his fourth World Cup this summer. It wasn’t always thus. Indeed, it’s remarkable just how much Beckham’s popularity has waxed and waned throughout his career. Going into France 98 he wasn’t considered a starter, but Glenn Hoddle bowed to public pressure after the first couple of games and put him in the team, only for him to flick his foot at Diego Simeone in the second round in one of those sporting acts of petulance whose consequences are similar ...

On the ball as always, the Oscars have just happened so here is a personal roundup of this year’s main contenders (plus one that surprisingly wasn’t). Not that I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees, of course. I really can’t be bothered with Avatar , no matter how pretty it may be. Precious promised to be such heavy going that I shied away from it, leaving the whole “grief porn” debate aside. And I somehow managed to miss out on The Hurt Locker , which is unfortunate seeing as it won. Hey, if someone paid me to write these things then I’d clearly make more of an effort. Sorry about that. Anyways, I had the chance to see a preview screening of Sandra Bullock’s Best Actress turn in The Blind Side this evening. For the uninitiated, this is the real life story of a southern belle who decides to take in a poor, uneducated black kid named Michael who has become an NFL offensive tackle. The feelgood cliches come pretty thick and fast, with ripe “Honey you’re changing his life!” “No, he’s...