David Beckham is resting his swollen left ankle. But the paparazzi that chases him around Los Angeles on a daily basis never rests.
If Beckham goes to the grocery store, the photographers will hope to point and click as he pushes the cart. If Beckham and wife Victoria take the kids to the park, the photographers will try to get close enough to push the swings. If Beckham heads for the beach from his Beverly Hills home, the paparazzi will, too.
"He's used to this," said Chris Whittle, a British photographer who's now based in L.A. and shoots for Splash News. "He knows that with fame and celebrity, there is a price."
While American sports stars have their own level of celebrity status, they generally don't have photographers attempting to snap their picture on a constant basis or camping out near their house. Now that Beckham is in the USA, he instantly ranks as the most coveted picture subject on the U.S. sporting landscape.
Although Beckham is currently stationed across the pond, the British tabloids love to show their readers in pictures just what Beckham is up to on a daily basis. When there's high demand, there's high intensity for the paparazzi scrambling to deliver the shots.
When the Beckhams were the guests of a gala welcoming party hosted by Tom Cruise and Will Smith on Sunday night in downtown Los Angeles, the paparazzi had the best of all worlds.
Staked out behind a barricade just across the street from the Geffen Contemporary, the paparazzi had a chance to take pictures of not only the Beckhams, but also an A-list of Hollywood celebrities as they entered the party via a red carpet route.
The big moment came when Cruise and wife Katie Holmes; Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith and David and Victoria Beckham came together for a group shot. The paparazzi yelled for certain poses and feverishly clicked away.
Most days, it's not that easy for the paparazzi to get the choice pictures.
"Sometimes, you are in front of a restaurant for hours and hours and they go through the back door," Whittle said. "Sometimes, you go to their house and they aren't there and you have to try and find them."
With Beckham, the move to L.A. only heightened his value to the paparazzi.
"They've almost crafted this whole 'David Beckham comes to America' thing," Whittle said. "The ads were out on television before he was here. He has been in commercials, advertisements, promotions. And that was when he was still playing for Real Madrid. It's all about the buildup. And now that he's here, it's a big thing."
Whittle said the David and Victoria combination of handsome soccer star and beautiful Spice Girl all feed into the Beckhams' white-hot paparazzi craze.
"It's just a different mindset in England and Spain, compared to the American sports stars," Whittle said. "If Kobe Bryant was just walking down the street, we probably wouldn't photograph him. If David Beckham was walking down the street, we definitely would photograph him. With American sports stars, we rarely go anywhere near them."
Among sports stars from England, Whittle said nobody compares right now with Beckham from a paparazzi standpoint.
"He's No. 1 in England without a doubt," Whittle said. "The hype here in L.A. will die down. But there will always be some paparazzi chasing him. Every single day."
Will there come a time when Beckham can walk the streets of Beverly Hills without being photographed?
"He might get away with it now and again," Whittle said. "But that will be one in a hundred."
Robert Falkoff is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
