Victoria Beckham's had a long-standing desire to conquer American television, one that supersedes her dream to just become America's Next Top Czarina. For her newest network venture, Beckham will replace Elizabeth Hasselbeck on The View for one episode during the regular co-host's maternity leave -- a notable gig for Beckham, who's previously relied on former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller for her big breaks (he produced her U.S. reality special for NBC and landed Beckham her recent guest judging gig on his own American Idol). Still, none of this news addresses a salient issue: Do stateside couch-dwellers really care about Victoria Beckham?
Beckham's quest for American prominence has turned out some respectable appearances (a guest-judging spot on the fourth-season finale of Project Runway) and, well, "vapid, orgiastic, self-indulgent" endeavors too. A central kink in Beckham's springboard to prominence is confusion over who she is -- for all of her tabloid omnipresence, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Yankee who has actually seen the woman speak. Even for those who consider Beckham a relevant fashion icon, she still represents an aloof, aristocratic form of celebrity, one with little reason to dabble in plebeian matters like The Views' Hot Topics. In order for her fame to work, she needs to reorient and reinvent her image, since thus far her intrigue extends as far as smirks at LAX.
Her self-effacing 2007 appearance on Ugly Betty was a step in the right direction, but ultimately, America likes to debunk the mystique of patrician celebrities via TMZ, not through a celebrity's own machinations. If Vicky plans to reclaim her persona, she needs to find a way to seem less like a Simon Fuller-helmed cipher and more like an actual person. With her September appearance on The View fast approaching, Beckham should discard her Marchesa column dress and don J-Crew attire, simply to prove she can. If she starts the episode admitting her secret love of Crocs and her addiction to Diddy's Twitter feed, we may have a daytime contender on our hands.
Victoria Beckham: 'The View?' [PopCrunch]