It's been about a year since the Beckhams and their BlackBerry-toting entourage descended on these shores and I take no glee - well, not much, anyway - in saying that at long last the hype has died down.
And it seems many Los Angelenos are discovering there wasn't that much there to begin with.
David Beckham, the golden boy of top-flight soccer in England and Spain, and his over-tanned and scarecrow-thin wife Victoria, moved to Los Angeles last year on the back of his US$250 million deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy. They came with their three young sons and a plane-load of nannies, assistants and assorted helpers, set up camp at a palatial Beverly Hills estate, and set about becoming the style and social icons that, let's face it, they believed they were destined to be.
A year on, Beckham's performances have been so-so (he sat out much of his first season because of injuries, which must have made the owners and fans apoplectic) and, in his latest appearance against FC Dallas, was outplayed by one of that team's players who I can almost guarantee is not on a US$250 million package.
His wife, the girl formerly known as Posh Spice, has had her own issues. After setting herself up as a design doyenne (she wanted to do a jeans line and was apparently secretly hankering for Heidi Klum's gig on Project Runway, on which she guest-starred last season), perhaps Mrs Beckham is finding out that making it in the mercurial world of fashion takes more than wearing outsized sunglasses and having a hot husband.
Her fashion line, dVb, seems to have faltered. The line's much-ballyhooed arrival at Los Angeles-style mecca Kitson turned into a fiasco when the boutique said it just didn't want it any more because people just weren't into it.
There were reportedly also plans for a men's line, which should have shipped this month, but that hadn't quite transpired yet either.
