James Lawton: David who? That's what America is asking

Despite all the hoopla, the Beckhams appear to have slid totally out of the consciousness of America.

"Bend it like who?" was one sneering headline during their publicity tour and yesterday, in all the millions of words devoted to coverage of the US Open golf and the climax of the NBA finals won by the San Antonio Spurs, there was only one item of "soccer news". It wasn't to do with Beckham's remarkable effect on the Barcelona presidential elections. No, it was concerned with the fact that the stand-in goalie for the Atlanta girls team, Melanie Wilson, made seven saves against "powerhouse" Carolina.

All in all, Oscar Wilde appeared to have made rather more of an impact on a promotional tour of his own more than 100 years ago. One quote resurrected at the weekend was his reaction to the proud burghers of Denver when they hauled him on to a hotel balcony and demanded his reaction to one of their famous "Rocky Mountain sunsets". Oscar sniffed, "Very gaudy." Only heaven knows what he would have said about one of David's outfits.