Publishing them, he said, would lead to legal action and end in an �enormous damages award� against you. �Once again I urge you in the strongest possible terms not to bring these lawsuits upon yourself.�
The warning went unheeded when it landed on the Manhattan desk of editor Michelle Lee on Monday last week. Two days later, her weekly magazine � In Touch � went on sale across America with its �worldwide exclusive�.
The fallout has made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.
After all, the salacious allegations � �lies�, insists Mr Deixler � involve three-in-a bed romps, a $10,000-a-night hooker and a notorious Madam. And, of course, David Beckham, who is suing both the magazine and the former call girl at the centre of the still-unfolding drama.
She is Bosnian-born Irma Nici, 26, (real name Nezirovic), who used to work out of a flat in London�s Paddington as well as in New York. Miss Nici told the U.S magazine that she had sex with Beckham in hotels in both these cities in August and September 2007.
Her scandalous account is documented in a writ filed at the California Superior Court by Beckham�s lawyer.
So what did Miss Nici allege? Well, the papers go into extraordinary detail, often quoting verbatim from the article, such as: �Irma Nici, a former high-class call girl, claims she slept with the world�s most famous soccer star five times and spills every dirty detail of the affair.
�After agreeing on a price for several hours of sex, David gave Irma $5,000 in cash, which he retrieved from an envelope in the hotel room safe. Then, at David�s request, Irma took a shower .?.?. She changed into black lingerie and they began to make out �passionately� on the bed.
The two spent the next hour engaged in foreplay .?.?. after approximately an hour, Irma says the two had sex for 15 minutes.
�Irma ordered room service and �suggested they invite another escort to join them. She claimed David agreed.
�When the brunette arrived, Irma told her to take a shower and the two engaged in a show for David.
�After the other woman left, David asked Irma to stay the night and, after agreeing a total price of $10,000, they took a bath together. They allegedly slept together one more time [in New York].
'David and Irma met up again [at a London hotel] about a month later... Irma claims he paid her about $5,000 for 90 minutes of what she characterises as stress-reliever sex.�
The writ states that the claims are false and defamatory and have caused the ex-England captain, who plays for LA Galaxy, �great mental anguish and emotional distress�.
It would be difficult to imagine more potentially serious consequences � or costly ones. Father-of-three Beckham, 35, who has been married to Victoria, 36, for 11 years, is claiming $25 million (�16 million) in damages.
They have �adversely affected him in his professional life as an athlete, endorser and charity spokesperson�, and inaccurately portray him �as an unfaithful husband who put his wife�s health at risk by engaging in sexual acts with prostitutes�.
Miss Nici does not appear to have a shred of evidence to support her version of events, and her observations of Beckham are nothing new. Let us examine her claims, then, in more detail.
THE HOTEL
The first encounter, she claims, took place at Le Parker Meridien hotel in Manhattan. She said Beckham was staying in a �junior� suite, in which there is a corner that houses a safe (from which Beckham is alleged to have produced $5,000). Beckham was in New York in August 2007. LA Galaxy were playing New York Red Bulls on the 18th of that month. Such information is hardly confidential, however.
Is there any proof either Beckham or Miss Nici were at the Meridien? The hotel declined to comment.
However, Beckham insists he stayed at the Waldorf Astoria.
BECKHAM�S HAIR
Miss Nici says that when Beckham opened the door of his suite, his hair was damp after a shower. Beckham � through his representatives � says this can�t be true because he was sporting a �grade one� haircut at the time. In other words, his hair was so short it would probably have dried almost immediately. A photograph in the New York Times of Beckham on August 18 confirms he had a crew cut.
IDENTIFYING MARK
Miss Nici says Beckham has a distinguishing mark on an intimate body part that only someone who had seen him naked could possibly know about. Or someone who has done her homework?
Remember Rebecca Loos, Beckham�s former PA, who said she had a three-month affair with him after he moved to Madrid in 2004?
Beckham has always strenuously denied the affair. The point is this, though: Miss Loos also spoke of Beckham�s �distinguishing mark�. It prompted Ladbrokes to open a book for punters to bet on what it might be.
Indeed, Miss Nici�s account is �suspiciously similar to that of Miss Loos in other ways.
Miss Nici said he �knew what he was doing� in bed. Compare the wording with the description Miss Loos used in an interview six years ago. �He [Beckham] seemed to know what he was doing.� Both women also describe taking part in the same sex act with Beckham.
THE OTHER PROSTITUTE AND MADAM
Miss Nici has refused to identify the mystery second call girl, referring to her only has Jess. Her only �proof� that the girl existed? The word of her agent Kristin Davis, who used to be known as the �Manhattan Madam�. She spent four months in jail in 2008 for providing prostitutes to rich and famous �clients, including the then New York Governor Elliot Spitzer.
Miss Davis says she received a call Irma Nici from Le Meridien asking her to supply a �brunette with curves� for a threesome.
Conveniently, Miss Davis, a busty blonde, says: �Jess will never meet or talk about it. She is out of the game, and not even in this state. She wants nothing to do with it. She will not talk for all the money in the world.
Unlike Miss Nici who has spent much of the past week attempting to get a further �200,000 from various media outlets for her �story�.
VICTORIA�S DIETING
Miss Nici says Beckham told her he preferred his wife�s more curvaceous figure of old. �He was saying that he liked her body more before,� she said. Sound familiar? Miss Loos made almost identical comments about Beckham when she spoke to the News of the World in 2004.
�He hated her thin, stick-like body,� she said. �That was not what David likes. He likes curves on a woman. He told me one day: �I love her, but it�s more like a brotherly and �sisterly love. I don�t find her as attractive as I used to.��
COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOUR
�He�s a little weird, a little OCD,� Miss Nici says of Beckham. �He even put the television remote controls in order.�
Under different circumstances, it might be easy to believe that the two had met. How else would she know about Beckham�s compulsive behaviour? Answer: it is widely known.
�Everything has to match in the house,� Victoria revealed in 2007. �If there are three cans of Diet Coke, he�d throw one away rather than having three because it�s uneven.� Her husband, she said, even vacuums the carpet in �straight lines�.
CLARIDGE�S
Miss Nici says she met Beckham at Claridge�s in London in September 2007, a month after their meeting in New York.
She said: �His dad was sick or something and he was very upset.�
It was widely reported that Beckham flew into Heathrow on September 28 to visit his father, Ted, who had suffered a heart attack.
�Why would David be calling out a prostitute when his father was seriously ill?� said a Beckham aide. �To add to this, Victoria had cancelled a trip to Japan and had flown home to London to join him.�
PHONE RECORDS
A Sunday newspaper caught up with Irma Nici at the weekend. She had claimed to have phone records of Beckham calling her from Le Meridien. But when pressed she could not produce any.
She offered to show reporters �evidence of U.S. immigration stamps in her passport to prove she was in New York at the time she alleges she was with Beckham, but later claimed her handbag containing the document had been stolen.
A likely story. In fact, it is as credible as all the other lurid claims she made in her �world exclusive� interview.
