BECKHAM BASH LOSES HOST

The two and twenty misfortunes hitting Victoria Beckham's gorge yourself for the starving party continue to pile up - Chris Evans has pulled out from his hosting role, supposedly because he's just found out ITV will be broadcasting the "event". Chris says this could cause problems with his BBC contract, although hosting the Brits on ITV isn't a problem, and it's not like the ITV deal is recent news, and, besides, it's for charity so we can't imagine Mark Thompson would stop him.

It is, on the other hand, a convenient excuse.

More worryingly, a small row has burst out over a planned World War II flypast. The Beckhams are denying that they ever wanted second world war planes to fly over the party - understandably so, what with David's bosses at the FA trying to stop people seeing the World Cup as a continuation of a sixty-year old conflict. Oddly, though, the Ministry of Defence seem to have been asked to fly past by someone:

The three planes were already scheduled to appear at an air show organised by the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in Cambridgeshire before returning to their base at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

As the aircraft would be flying back at about the same time as the Beckhams' party, the RAF had offered to make a minor detour to open the event.

But a Ministry of Defence spokesman said the fly-past had been cancelled at the request of the Beckhams.

So the RAF now just ring up party organisers offering to burn up fuel on the off-chance? Apparently, say the Beckhams:

The Beckhams' spokesman said the offer of having the three WWII planes had been suggested as part of the package on offer by the organisers of the aerobatic display.

"We declined, all we wanted was the display by the American planes. Having World War II planes was never going to happen, but there was confusion and some people thought that we were.

"The idea had been talked over by the organisers with the RAF as a possibility, but we had already decided not to go ahead on Friday.

"David has been a keen supporter of the FA's guidance for no references to the Second World War, so anyone trying to make out that we pulled out due to pressure is wrong.

"The aerobatic display was just to add a bit of excitement to the evening for the guests - if people use this... to criticise David and Victoria, that's completely wrong," said their spokesman.

It's all, then, just a terrible misunderstanding.

We'd quite like to know why the MOD was even considering this - using our hard-pressed tax cash to give thrills to a private event.

music david beckham victoria beckham world cup