Celebrity photographer Frank Griffin of the Bauer-Griffin photo agency talked to Andrew Gumbel about his experiences with David and Victoria Beckham.
He’s been no good at all for business.
He sells in England, which is why he has 20 English photographers with him all the time. Posh organizes their arrivals and departures by paging them when she goes shopping…
In this business you get paid for exclusives, that’s what makes money.
David Beckham plays soccer… Occasionally he grabs his nuts, takes his shirt off, and The Sun writes a headline that goes Phoarrr — spelled P-h-o-a-r-r. The picture makes 500 dollars, or pounds. You make more money on Zac Efron, he’s worth anywhere for 100 to 1000 times more than Beckham.
About Beckham’s time in Los Angeles:
Nobody gave a shit about him, except when he was doing the Calvin Klein stuffing your package ads. Posh was doing as much as she could to expose herself, but it was all a big yawn.
It’s still only fucking soccer, you know? It’s of no interest to people like us. When they orchestrated their official arrival, there must have been 200 people waiting for them at the airport. They made themselves look like wankers, in a town that’s already got so many larger-than-life figures…
This is La-la land. She ain’t going to show the La-las how to out-La-la the La-la people. Hollywood’s been at this for a hundred years, making people with zero talent famous. It’s a business — look at Pamela Anderson, or Heidi Montag.
… Victoria thought this was going to be her pathway to stardom but what was she going to be? Stylist to the stars? The woman’s got no style…
He’s the Brad Pitt of the sporting world. He’s good looking, and he can play. The country needs its heroes. But you can’t translate what he’s got into the American context.
