Brooklyn Beckham is in the advanced stages of planning the launch of his very own ‘Brand Beckham’ — called Cloud 23 after the No 23 shirt which his superstar father David wore at Real Madrid and LA Galaxy.
Brooklyn, 24, who is the eldest son of Becks and his fashion designer wife Victoria, has set up a Californian company called Peltz Beckham — the blended family name which he took after marrying Nicola Peltz in 2022.
Lawyers for Peltz Beckham LLC have filed for a slew of trademarks for Cloud 23 at the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office to cover kitchen knives, cutlery, hats, T-shirts and sweatshirts, sauces, booze (from spirits to beer), non-fungible tokens… and much else besides.
I’m told that his billionaire father-in-law Nelson Peltz has been advising Brooklyn on building his empire.
There are plenty of signs of an initial focus on hot sauce — something I previously revealed was in the works for Brooklyn, who took up cooking during the pandemic and now makes a living as a culinary social media star.
He’s asked to trademark Cloud 23 for a range of sauces, from Worcestershire and steak through to ketchup, mayo, aioli and all kinds of chilli including sriracha, picante, pico de Gallo, chimichurri and wasabi. On the sweet side there are mentions of maple syrup, honey, raspberry coulis and chocolate sauce.
Brooklyn Beckham has launched his own brand, Cloud 23, through a company called Peltz Beckham, a blend of his surname and that of his wife Nicola Peltz
The company is also seeking to trademark Cloud 23 guacamole, tahini and tapenade.
And Cloud 23 is going to be a brand in the virtual world, too. Beckham is seeking trademarks for the ‘provision of an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of hot sauce’ and for selling other food and beverage products virtually, for use in a virtual world.
It’s not just virtual food and drink that the Cloud 23 label could cover.
Trademarks are being sought for ‘providing online, non-downloadable virtual footwear, clothing, headwear, eyewear, bags, sports bags, backpacks, sports equipment, art, toys, digital animated and non-animated designs and characters, avatars, digital overlays, and skins for use in virtual environments’.
It will provide those virtual environments, too; where ‘users can interact for recreational, leisure, or entertainment purposes’.
If this sounds like a new world, you’re not wrong. Metaverse platforms such as Roblox, Decentraland and The Sandbox have massive in‑game economies where revenue can be generated by selling folks everything their avatar desires. Users dress up their characters with ‘skins’, and purchase virtual clothing to express individuality. All of which can be resold or swapped.
Another, slightly easier to understand, application seeks to brand the ‘streaming of entertainment content and live streaming of entertainment events via an online environment’.
Meanwhile, back in the (real) kitchen, critics have carped at the standard of Brooklyn’s cooking. In his Cookin’ With Brooklyn series on Facebook in 2022 he asked a chef how he would know when a hash brown was cooked, and appeared to have no idea how to batter or fry fish. There were 62 crew on the show.
The taste test: Brooklyn Beckham on his much-mocked cooking tutorial show
Despite this, he has built an online following of more than 16.4 million on Instagram, picking up endorsement deals with companies including Dunkin’ Donuts, Typhur cookware, Chosen foods, and sake purveyors Wesake, in which he is an investor.
Brooklyn has admitted he’s been looking for something he would ‘literally die for, and I found that with cooking’… after brief flirtations with football and photography.
He will have some way to go, though, to emulate the success of his parents, who have built Brand Beckham into a huge empire of endorsements and enterprises, making David and Victoria worth around £360 million.
Come on rover to Clare’s place
Clare Balding’s Channel 5 series about reuniting missing and stolen dogs with their owners had to have it’s confusing title changed midway through the series run.
The original name — Lost Dogs Live With Clare Balding — was dropped in favour of Lost Dogs, Found Dogs, for obvious reasons. ‘They realised that Lost Dogs Live With Clare Balding does, in print, look like lost dogs live with Clare Balding… in which case they’re not lost,’ she says.
The show is to return to C5, with Balding telling the Walking The Dog podcast: ‘It will be lovely to have a recurring series on dogs, because I love doing Crufts — but that’s four days a year. I think there’s space on the schedules for a bit more dog love, and dog advice.’
Just as long as people don’t think she’s taking them all in personally.
When in Rome… don’t say ‘Buenos Aires everyone!’
Thrilled by the global success of the soapy, sexy period drama Bridgerton, Netflix have turned to Boccaccio’s Decameron — the medieval collection of stories about Florentine nobility — as the source for their unlikely next attempt at more of the same.
Irish actress Saoirse-Monica Jackson who was daffy Erin in Derry Girls, is one of the stars of the mega-budget show, which will come out later this year.
Saoirse-Monica Jackson at the Vanity Fair EE Rising Star Party 2022 in London
The drama was filmed at the legendary Cinecitta studios in Rome for seven months of last year, and the actress, 30, was keen to make a good impression on the Italian crew by speaking their language.
She told the Dish podcast: ‘I was really trying, but I’m dyslexic, so sometimes things don’t sink in that fast. We were three weeks into the job, and I kept landing into the hair and make-up rooms in the morning, being all: ‘Buenos Aires! Buenos Aires! Buenos Aires!’
‘Nobody corrected me on it. They were saying it back to me as well. They were like: ‘Bella, Buenos Aires!’
‘And then this wonderful American actress, Zosia Mamet, said: ‘I’m so sorry, but it’s not Buenos Aires.’ And I was like: ‘Are you actually being serious? Why are you all saying Buenos Aires to me?’ And she was all: ‘I think it’s a joke with everyone.’ ‘
The show has been written by Kathleen Jordan of Teenage Bounty Hunters fame. She said: ‘I can’t wait for people to meet this ridiculous group of characters. I’m sure Giovanni Boccaccio would be… confused.’
If the British ARE coming, they’re bringing up the rear
Remember Colin Welland’s cry ‘The British are coming!’ when Chariots Of Fire won four Oscars in 1982? Sadly, the bookies don’t think you’ll be hearing it this year.
Awards season 2024 kicks off with the Golden Globes on Monday, and aside from predicted wins for Oppenheimer and its director Christopher Nolan, British contenders are looking like long shots.
Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre and Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in ‘Maestro’
Carey Mulligan, nominated as best actress for Maestro (pictured), looks set to be beaten by Killers Of The Flower Moon’s Lily Gladstone — Mulligan is at 5/2 while Gladstone at 1/2.
And an Irish victory looks likely in the best actor race, with Cillian Murphy the hot favourite for Oppenheimer, and Andrew Scott (for All Of Us Strangers) at 33-1.
In the supporting race, Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, 12-1) and Rosamund Pike (Saltburn, 40-1) trail DaVine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. Oscars nominations come out on January 23.
Parents who can’t resist a Hitchcock cameo moment…
Award-winning TV producer Nicola Shindler says many of her dramas feature Alfred Hitchcock-style cameo moments… involving her mum.
Just as legendary film director Hitchcock was known for making blink-and-you’ll-miss-them appearances in most of his movies — including Rear Window, The Birds, Strangers On A Train and Psycho — so Nicola’s mum, Gay Shindler, appears as an extra in many of her daughter’s productions.
She’s in the opening wedding scenes of the new Netflix hit Fool Me Once and also in the audience of Gypsy in Nolly, on ITV over Christmas.
‘Mum is my Alfred Hitchcock,’ Nicola laughs. ‘She just turns up in different places. Mum always talks to actors as if they are still the characters she remembers them as. On Last Tango In Halifax she spoke to Anne Reid as if she was Valerie Barlow [her character from Coronation Street] 60 years ago.’
Nicola Shindler and her mother Gay (left), who appears as an extra in many of her films
James Norton with his father Hugh (left) who was an extra in ‘War and Peace’
Retired school teacher Gay told the Jewish Mother Me podcast: ‘I love that sort of atmosphere. I spent a whole morning with Stephen Fry when I was an extra on It’s A Sin. I love famous people!’
She’s not alone — James Norton’s retired teacher father, Hugh, loves being an extra on his son’s shows so much that he has had cameos in Grantchester, War And Peace, McMafia and Happy Valley.
Packham and partner are in good company
Naturalist Chris Packham’s romance with girlfriend Charlotte Corney has gained official recognition, with her appointment as secretary of his business, Chris Packham Limited; succeeding his late father.
The couple have been together for 16 years but don’t live together — Countryfile star Packham has a home in the New Forest, Hampshire, and Charlotte runs a zoo on the Isle of Wight.
A spokesman for Packham, 62, confirms that Corney was added as the secretary on December 18 ‘to fill the vacancy’ following the death of Chris’s father Colin in July 2021.
Chris Packham’s girlfriend Charlotte Corney has succeeded his father as the secretary of his business Chris Packham Limited
She adds: ‘The appointment of a company secretary is not a legal requirement, but is common practice for small companies. It does not have any wider implications beyond this.’
The couple (pictured) met in 2007 when Packham was doing a voiceover for a show, based at Corney’s Wildheart Trust.
During his appearance on The Different Minds podcast, the Springwatch star recalled the early days of their relationship, saying his Asperger’s Syndrome made it difficult.
‘I so liked Charlotte and wanted to develop a relationship with her, but I was so intimidated I found it really difficult to look at her, despite the fact that I really liked the way she looked!’
He said that this behaviour led to her initially describing him as ‘the weirdest person’ she knew.
Charlotte told the Radio Times: ‘He made a huge effort to come to the launch of the film, so that he could meet me again. His Asperger’s means he can’t flirt, so there were none of the usual signs to pick up on.
‘A few days later, we were meant to go to dinner, but instead we just talked the whole night, and we connected on every level. I knew that my whole world was in that person.’
Paul Mescal (pictured) agreed to take the lead role in A Spy By Nature last year, but dropped out after being offered the lead in the sequel of Gladiator
Does Oscar-nominated Paul Mescal have a ruthless streak? The actor who shot to fame with TV series Normal People, agreed to take the lead role in A Spy By Nature last year, adapted from the best-selling Charles Cumming novel.
But I hear that after the deal was announced he dropped out, having been offered the lead in the Gladiator sequel, which is just finishing filming in Malta with director Ridley Scott.
Warner Bros hit the jackpot with Barbie and they might just have another monster on their hands with the also long-in-the-works Minecraft.
That’s just starting to film in New Zealand, with Jason Momoa as the leading man, and Jack Black as the Steve character.
No one seems to know what the plot revolves around — creepers? the Ender Dragon? — and it’s been through a number of writers since 2016.
But with Jared Hess, the director of comedies Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre in the chair, it could be (like Barbie) a smart, sideways look at beloved, iconic figures.
Minecraft is the biggest selling game of all time, with 140 million monthly players. And it’s worth remembering gaming is FAR bigger than the movies.
The global gaming market was valued at $159 billion in 2020, against $41.7 billion for the movie biz, and a measly $19.1 billion for the music industry.
Sir Michael Palin has just completed filming a travel series for Channel 5 in West Africa.
‘There was so much sickness among the crew, I suggested Imodium sponsor us!’ he says.
The Monty Python star turns 81 in May and has his next destination in mind already: ‘South America is fascinating and I would love to cover at least part of that continent.’
