They're off to the land of the free, where the sun shines more than three days a year and a £125 million football contract awaits. So you'd think they could raise a smile. True to form, as the family Beckham left for Los Angeles yesterday it was all dark glasses and pouting for Mummy and brooding silence from Daddy.
The thought of David taking up his lucrative post at the LA Galaxy club didn't seem to put a spring in their step on the walk through Heathrow with their three sons. Neither did the idea of moving into their new £11 million home in Beverly Hills near their friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. And nor could the prospect of Victoria coming out of her husband's shadow to launch herself as a TV personality there with a fly-on-the-wall documentary, as a precursor to the Spice Girls' first reunion gig in December.