As the bitter Beckham family feud continues to rage, Nicola Peltz has suffered a fresh humiliation – with the latest TV series she stars in being savaged by critics as ‘offensive, dumbed down and unhinged.’
The 31-year-old heiress, who was once described by her billionaire father as a ‘world-famous actress,’ in a lawsuit against her wedding planners, appears in Ryan Murphy’s new body-horror series, The Beauty.
Critics who binge-watched the 11-episode series have delivered a brutal verdict, accusing it of ripping off the award-winning The Substance with ‘excessive’ sex and violence.
Bella Hadid, Ashton Kutcher, Evan Peters and Meghan Trainor are among the sprawling A-list ensemble, but reviewers say even star power cannot disguise what one critic described as ‘shameless claptrap.’
Metro’s Rebecca Cook brutally gave the new show just one star and her headline states: ‘Ryan Murphy’s offensive new TV show is nearly unwatchable.’
She wrote: ‘Having seen the trailer and read the list of guest stars – Meghan Trainor! Bella Hadid! Nicola Peltz Beckham! – I expected nonsense. But I was not prepared for the endurance challenge that was soldiering through these 11 episodes.’
Critics who binge-watched the 11-episode series have delivered a brutal verdict, accusing it of ripping off the award-winning The Substance with ‘excessive’ sex and violence
The 31-year-old is arguably more known for her highly publicised romance with her husband, Brooklyn Beckham
Other critics were no kinder. The Independent said the series was not ‘a patch’ on the films it so obviously borrows from, while the Irish Independent dismissed it as ‘muck.’
But for Nicola, the savage reception is depressingly familiar.
The 31-year-old is arguably more known for her highly publicised romance with her husband, Brooklyn Beckham, 26, as well as the fact that she is the daughter of billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz and former model Claudia Heffner.
Her acting debut came at the age of 11 in Deck the Halls, a festive flop that holds a paltry six per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a popular review-aggregation website for movies and TV shows.
She later appeared in The Last Airbender – derided as an ‘abomination of cinema’ – and Transformers: Age of Extinction, a box-office hit that critics dismissed as ‘all hype and no hope.’
Despite repeated attempts to relaunch herself as a serious screen presence, The Beauty now joins a growing list of projects that have failed to convince reviewers.
In 2024, her directional debut, Lola, was torn apart by critics and viewers alike, many branding it little more than a ‘vanity project.’
The then-29-year-old heiress wrote, directed and starred in the film, which premiered with a limited theatrical and digital release.
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Nicola’s directorial debut Lola has been torn apart from critics and viewers alike, who have labelled the film nothing more than a ‘vanity project’ (pictured in film)
Nicola plays the title character, a teenage girl who works to save up enough money to get her and her younger brother out of the toxic home they share with their mother
Despite being born into vast wealth, Nicola cast herself as a destitute teenage girl desperate to save enough money to escape a toxic home with her younger brother.
Reviewers blasted the film as ‘a glorified commercial’ for Nicola and accused it of being ‘poverty porn,’ exploiting deprivation for entertainment.
At the time, many viewers said they felt she had failed to grasp even a basic understanding of the world she was attempting to portray.
‘I felt like the whole movie was based around her looking pretty and giving her flattering close ups,’ said one critic, while another slammed her ‘dead-eyed’ acting.
On Instagram, one user added: ‘I wish rich people like yourself would stay away from trying to tell stories like this… You have no idea what this character’s reality is like.
‘I find it offensive to the working-class women who are truly living this reality that have to see a billionaire indulge themselves into a dream acting role.’
Speaking to WWD at the time, Nicola defended casting herself as a struggling, drug-addicted teenage stripper despite living a life of almost unimaginable privilege.
‘The way I see it, I feel very connected to the characters I created,’ she said. ‘But of course, I did not grow up like Lola at all.
‘I am an actress and my dream is to get to look at the world from different perspectives.’
The actress was also criticised for using her elite background to get the passion project made.
She secured the services of 28-time Grammy-winning producer Quincy Jones, the man behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, to work on the soundtrack.
Quincy’s daughter, Kenya Kinski-Jones, 32, just happens to be engaged to Nicola’s elder brother Will, 39.
The bruising reception to her latest on-screen venture comes at an awkward moment for Nicola, who is already under intense scrutiny amid an escalating feud with her husband’s famous family.
Just this week, Brooklyn launched a blistering social media attack on his parents, David and Victoria Beckham, airing years of grievance in a scathing six-page statement.
Just this week, Brooklyn launched a blistering social media attack on his parents, airing years of grievance in a scathing six-page statement
David and Victoria ‘have fears their son Brooklyn will be left with nothing’ after he allegedly signed a rigid pre-nuptial agreement before he wed Nicola
While Nicola’s latest screen outing has been torn apart, Victoria appears to be enjoying the last laugh
Among the stinging posts to Instagram on Monday night, the wannabe photographer and food influencer said he did not want to reconcile with his family following a feud which saw him miss his father’s milestone 50th birthday and knighthood earlier this year.
He claimed that Victoria cancelled making Nicola’s wedding dress ‘at the eleventh hour,’ that his parents pressured him to sign away rights to his name, and that his mother ‘hijacked’ his first dance with his new bride, dancing ‘inappropriately’ on him in front of 500 guests.
He also said he was ‘controlled by a family that values public promotion above all else’ and that since being with his wife Nicola, he has found ‘peace and relief’ after battling crippling anxiety.
Despite once declaring he was a ‘mama’s boy,’ Brooklyn focused mainly on Victoria in his lengthy statement, with insiders saying the vitriol left her ‘devastated’ and ‘on the floor in pieces.’
But while Nicola’s latest screen outing has been torn apart, Victoria appears to be enjoying the last laugh.
As the family row continues to grip the public, Victoria today bagged her first ever solo number one after an extraordinary fan-led social media campaign pushed her to the top of the charts.
Her 2001 single Not Such An Innocent Girl, a track which showcased Posh Spice’s raunchy dance moves, has surged to number one on the iTunes chart in the UK and Ireland.
More than two decades after being beaten to number one by Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, the song has racked up over 3.3million Spotify streams, with supporters rallying online behind the hashtag #TeamPosh.
