Macaulay Culkin, Seth Rogen and Tim Burton lead tributes to Catherine O’Hara

Catherine O’Hara, the award-winning actor known for roles in films and TV, including Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek, has died at the age of 71.

O’Hara died Friday at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness, her manager told Variety.

The two-time Emmy winner is perhaps best known for playing Kate McCallister in the first two Home Alone films, before going on to play matriarch Moira Rose on the hit TV series Schitt’s Creek.

O’Hara most recently appeared on 10 episodes of AppleTV’s The Studio and three episodes of the HBO series The Last of Us. Her work on both shows earned her Emmy nominations — the ninth and tenth of her career.

Emotional tributes have poured in from stars mourning the loss, including her Home Alone co-star Macaulay Culkin and The Last of Us co-star Pedro Pascal.

“Mama. I thought we had time,” Culkin began before adding, “But I had so much more to say.”

Pascal, meanwhile, wrote: “There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always.”

Follow below for updates as tributes come in…

Trump’s a bully – but even he’s running scared of ICE snatch squads

We all know the narrative of Donald Trump the bully: the man who throws his weight around, who intimidates, harangues and undermines anyone who stands in his way, who believes that might is right. Over the past year, we’ve seen it on display again and again. You can see it in his facial expressions: those tightly pursed lips, scowling eyes and nostrils, fists planted on the Resolute Desk that can sniff the weakness in an opponent from 100 paces.

A less appreciated side of Donald Trump – and it’s the side of him that makes him a far more formidable and subtle politician than the cartoon caricature allows – is that he has a finely tuned sense of danger. Like African kudu antelopes whose ears swivel and start to twitch as an early warning radar when they become aware there might be a predator in range, so Donald Trump has an acute sense of when political humiliation is awaiting him.

That marks him out from the fascistic clowns and goons he’s surrounded himself with in this administration. In Trump1.0, there were those in the room who would dare to push back, to point out the pitfalls of a particular policy. This time round, the only words that Trump hears from his aides are “yes, sir”. And they seek to win extra Brownie points by going further and faster than they were ever asked.

We’ll return to the cast of misfits who’ve delivered the policy disaster that is Minneapolis in a minute, but it’s not just what’s been unfolding in the upper midwestern state that was once a byword for tedium and polite dullness.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had the president threatening to sink beneath the waterline the Western Defence Alliance, Nato, with his insistence that he was going to annex Greenland. He had to have it. By hook or by crook, with the clear threat that he would take this Danish sovereign territory by force if necessary. But then he came face to face with European solidarity (normally an oxymoron) and completely backed down from his threats. It looks as though he might get some sort of deal to bolster US forces on this arctic piece of rock – but that was always on offer.

On his way back from Davos, he then gave that interview, which managed to combine offensiveness with breathtaking ignorance about the role of Nato forces in Afghanistan. In it, he said they “stayed a little off the frontlines”. Leave aside the revolting chutzpah of a man who has never put on a uniform; it was just plain wrong. More than 450 Brits paid the ultimate price in Afghanistan. Many more came home with life-altering injuries.

As the backlash grew, Trump climbed down and posted on his social media platform about the bravery of Britain’s warriors who fought alongside American servicemen and women. He knew he was on the wrong side of this – and course corrected.

Now, the one thing to understand about a Trump U-turn is that you are never going to hear the word “sorry”. Nor are you going to hear him say “I made a mistake”. Sure, it might look more gracious if he did, but that just ain’t gonna happen. Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is he does climbdown and U-turn and fold. He understands the limits of what he can get away with.

Which brings us back to the events of Minneapolis. The Trump cast-list is beyond parody. There’s the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) man who was in charge of the operation when Alex Pretti was shot multiple times as he lay on the ground, defenceless and offering no resistance. Boy, did they pick the wrong guy to build their “domestic terrorist” narrative. He was an intensive care nurse who worked in a hospital for military veterans and has no criminal record.

The man in charge of thugs terrorising the city’s citizens was pumped-up Greg Bovino, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Sean Penn character in One Battle After Another, Steven J Lockjaw. Bovino works under the Department of Homeland Security head, Kristi Noem. I’m pretty sure she was in Barbie: The Movie – always seen with a new ICE-appropriate outfit – big cowgirl hats and pseudo fatigues.

But the real “brains” behind the crackdown is Trump’s right-hand man, Stephen Miller. He is a provocateur who seemingly does want to start a war on Minneapolis’s streets to justify even more extreme measures that might have helped Trump come the midterm elections in November. A sort of Dr Strangelove de nos jours.

The three of them tried to spin a narrative that no one was buying: Pretti was about to carry out a massacre. He was armed (true, he had a pistol that he never tried to take from its holster on his thigh – but Minnesota is an “open carry” state, so it was entirely lawful) and had to be stopped. It was self-defence on the part of the ICE officers who felt their lives were in danger.

The reason that no one was buying this narrative was that Pretti and all the other protestors were armed with something far more dangerous than a 9mm handgun. They had smartphones that recorded – seemingly from every angle – the sequence of events that led to his untimely death.

The propagandists in the White House, who have sought to shape and define reality this past year – irrespective of the facts – have found themselves defeated and made to look preposterous with their flagrant untruths about this episode. Trump recognised the way this was spinning out of control and the wider danger it represents. They did not.

Trump’s other great skill is his visceral sense of where public opinion lies. His promise to crack down on illegal immigration was one of the principal reasons he won the last election. But the way he’s gone about it has offended so many people. The snatch squads, the masked faces, the brutality, the killing of American civilians exercising their right to protest have been jarring – because it just feels fundamentally un-American.

Trump is right to be nervous. His desire to be surrounded by ‘yes’ men and women have served up a policy catastrophe for which he is likely to pay a heavy price. And his opponents now sense weakness.

Israeli strikes kill 12 Palestinians in one of deadliest days for Gaza

Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians Saturday, one of the highest tolls since an October agreement aimed at stopping the fighting.

The strikes hit locations in northern and southern Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals that received the bodies said. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families.

The strikes came a day before a border crossing is set to open in Gaza’s southernmost city, a reminder that the death toll is still rising even as a ceasefire agreement inches forward.

All of the territory’s border crossings have been closed since the start of the war and Palestinians see the Rafah crossing with Egypt as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory, where the majority of medical infrastructure has been destroyed.

Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City strike killed a mother, three children and one of their relatives on Saturday morning, while Nasser Hospital said a strike in a tent camp caused a fire to break out, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has recorded more than 500 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on 10 October. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.

Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City strike took killed a mother, three children and one of their relatives, while Nasser Hospital said a strike in a tent camp caused a fire to break out, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.

Cost of pint to rise under new alcohol duty changes

Wine and spirits industry leaders have issued a stark warning that businesses “have no choice but to increase prices” to remain viable, as a significant rise in alcohol duty takes effect.

The increase, confirmed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in November’s autumn budget, sees alcohol duty escalate by 3.66 per cent, aligning with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation.

This change came into force from Sunday, 1 February.

While the tax is directly levied on alcohol producers, industry figures caution that a “trickle down” effect to shoppers is inevitable, particularly following a series of other cost increases in recent years.

Official data showed the duty on a typical bottle of gin, at 37.5 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV), will climb by 38p to £8.98, inclusive of VAT.

Similarly, a 40 per cent ABV bottle of Scotch whisky will see its duty rise by 39p to £9.51. Meanwhile, a bottle of 14.5 per cent red wine will incur an additional 14p in duty.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) said the tax on a bottle of 14.5% red wine has gone up £1.10 a bottle since the recent alcohol duty regime was introduced in August 2023.

The UK Spirits Alliance, which represents hundreds of distillers across the UK, has written to the Chancellor urging her to use an upcoming duty review to drive growth, end “spirits discrimination” and put in place a long-term approach.

Alcohol duties are partly linked to the strength of drinks, with beer below 3.5% ABV paying a significantly lower level of tax following an overhaul of duties in 2023.

A number of beer brands, such as Foster’s, have reduced their strength to 3.4% in recent months in a bid to reduce their duty costs.

The duty on beer will increase on drinks sold in both pubs and supermarkets, with pubs impacted for the first time since 2017.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: “These changes unfortunately increase the likelihood of further price rises, which no brewer or publican would want to inflict on their customers.

“For brewers, who already pay some of the highest rates of beer duty in Europe, this increase will add further strain to their already razor-thin profit margins and risk one of the UK’s world-renowned industries producing the greatest beers in the world.”

Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA, said: “Despite the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) at last acknowledging higher prices lead to a decline in receipts, the Government fails to recognise that its own policy is benefiting no-one.

“For the nation’s wine and spirit sector the complexities of price changes, especially for wine which is now taxed by strength, mean more red tape headaches ahead.

“Add to this all the other costs – including NI (national insurance) contributions, business rates and waste packaging taxes – and businesses have no choice but to increase prices in order to keep afloat, which unfortunately means consumers are going to take the hit once again.”

Braden Saunders, UK Spirits Alliance spokesperson and co-founder of Doghouse Distillery, Battersea, said: “The timing couldn’t be more ironic.

“Just as dry January draws to a close and people contemplate their first hard-earned drink, they’re met with higher prices at the bar.

“The spirits industry has been treated as a cash cow by consecutive governments, and the sector is on its knees.”

Allen Simpson, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: “Hospitality businesses are facing price pressures at every turn and our sector’s cost burden is growing at an unsustainable rate.

“Increases to alcohol duty, while not paid directly by operators, is another pressure, if it is passed on to businesses through higher drinks prices.

“We strongly urge suppliers to show restraint in doing so, recognising the economic pressure the sector is under.”

A Treasury spokesman said: “For too long the economy hasn’t worked for working people, and cost-of-living pressures still bear down.

“That’s why we are determined to help bring costs down for everyone.

“It’s why we’re taking £150 off energy bills, increasing the National Living Wage, ending the two-child limit, rolling out free breakfast clubs for all primary school children, and freezing fuel duty, rail fares and prescription fees.

“We need to rebuild the public services we all rely on.

“We’ve put record funding into our schools and NHS to give every child the best start in life and bring down waiting lists.

“Alcohol duty plays an important role in ensuring public finances remain fair and strong and funds the public services people rely on every day.”

HMRC to introduce new ‘penalty points’ system in 2026

HMRC is rolling out a new “penalty points” system this month that could land forgetful taxpayers with a £200 fine.

The new system. proposed by the tax authority in 2024, will first be tested on around 100 taxpayers, as part of the Making Tax Digital scheme.

Under the current rules, those who miss the 31 January self-assessment submission deadline get an automatic £100 fine. This can increase by £900 after three months (£10 a day), then another £300 after six months.

The new system will see many sole traders given quarterly deadlines to file updates, and then an end-of-year “final declaration” which will replace the current self-assessment tax return.

Each late quarterly submission will earn one penalty point instead of an automatic fine, with four points (or four missed quarterly deadlines) resulting in a £200 fine.

Meanwhile, each late annual submission will also result in one penalty point, but the threshold is lower, at two points (or two missed annual deadlines), which will also result in a £200 fine.

While this system will affect only a small number of people to begin with, it will begin to be rolled out fully from April for sole traders and landlords with annual self-employment and property income over £50,000. This threshold will be lowered each year, to £30,000 in 2027, and £20,000 in 2028.

The quarterly penalty points system will not apply in the first year of the scheme to give traders time to adapt.

HMRC explained in a paper on the changes: “The new penalty regime is simpler and fairer than the previous system. The new system will penalise those who persistently do not comply by missing filing and payment deadlines, while being more lenient on those who occasionally fail to meet obligations.”

An HMRC spokesperson told Sky News: “We’re committed to helping customers get their tax right to avoid fines altogether. Our fairer penalty points system for late returns will mean that only Making Tax Digital customers who persistently miss deadlines will incur a financial penalty.”

HMRC revealed last week that 3.3 million people still had yet to file their self-assessment tax return, with just a week to go until the 31 January deadline.

The smart moment to get ahead of your business budget

For businesses large and small, late January is when reality bites. For some, it’s the first chance to take a breath after the festive rush and early January sales. For others, it’s an opportunity to look at things afresh after time away from the office. Either way, it’s the moment when plans need to move off the page and into practice.

In a challenging business environment, budgets must work harder, workflows need to be optimised and spending requires clear oversight. This is where Amazon Business can make a tangible difference: helping teams start the year organised, keep costs under control and simplify everyday purchasing across essential business categories.

Stock Up and Save now: Business Savings Event Ends February 4

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Buy smarter, stay stocked

Feeling organised starts with knowing you have what you need. Amazon Business supports this by offering bulk buying options that help improve budget efficiency. From pallet-sized orders of cleaning products to everyday office supplies, buying in volume ensures businesses are paying the best possible price.

Registered Amazon Business customers also benefit from exclusive business-only pricing, alongside the fast and flexible delivery Amazon is known for. In some circumstances, same-day delivery is available, allowing businesses to stay agile and responsive without overstocking.

One platform, less paperwork

Switching to Amazon Business can also significantly reduce administrative burden. Rather than sourcing cleaning supplies from one provider, office technology from another and stationery from a third, Amazon Business acts as a one-stop shop for procurement.

This streamlined approach frees up valuable time, allowing business owners and teams to focus on delivering quality products and services, rather than managing multiple suppliers and invoices.

Control for leaders, autonomy for teams

Amazon Business combines the familiar Amazon interface with professional-grade tools designed specifically for organisations. Team members can order what they need quickly and intuitively – even without purchasing experience – all through a single, centralised account.

At the same time, business leaders retain full oversight. Multi-user accounts include built-in controls that define what different users can buy, ensuring transparency and compliance. Instead of juggling multiple supplier accounts, businesses gain instant insight into purchasing behaviour, helping to reduce rogue spend and keep budgets on track.

The platform’s analytics tools also enable deeper trend analysis, supporting smarter decision-making now and more effective planning for the future. Amazon Business integrates with more than 300 e-procurement and expense management systems, including Coupa, Concur Expense and SAP Ariba, and makes it easy to manage delivery preferences across multiple locations within a single workflow.

From fitting seamlessly into existing systems to keeping spending accountable, Amazon Business helps companies start the year as they mean to go on: with smarter, simpler and more business-focused buying.

Sign up for a free Amazon Business account to streamline your purchasing and take advantage of quantity discounts.

Why Matt Goodwin isn’t the Reform winner Farage thinks he is

It became known as “Dinnergate” – the moment Matt Goodwin, populist professor, GB News frontman and now Reform candidate, realised there really was a powerful cabal running Britain.

This is what happened: David Aaronovitch, the erudite and pugnacious broadcaster and columnist, proposed a public debate with Goodwin. Think a battle-hardened veteran of the boxing ring challenging a brash, media-savvy, YouTube influencer to a fight. Only without the £150m purse.

Goodwin accepted, and the two men slugged it out – not in a Miami arena, but in the gently faded Conway Hall in London under the auspices of Prospect Magazine. It’s fair to say the two brawlers could barely conceal their contempt for the other, but no one was killed or even hurt.

A shake of hands at the end, and David and I went off for a bowl of pasta.

Was it rude not to have invited Goodwin too? Possibly so. Replaying it in my mind, I probably thought neither man would relish pretending to like each other as they picked at their rocket salad.

But, no, it was much worse than rude. Goodwin took to X the following morning to denounce us to his 287k followers. “They didn’t even bother to invite me….Classic New Elite!” he sneered.

For Goodwin, this was the final confirmation of his theory of Broken Britain. A once great country has fallen into the hands of a small, out-of-touch “radicalising minority”. They are ruining universities, towns, companies, media and culture. And they don’t invite him to dinner.

Who are these new elites? They are “Anywheres”, who feel more at home in Davos, Brussels or Berlin than in provincial Britain. They are highly-educated professionals with an unwavering commitment to radical social liberalism, hyper-globalisation and woke ideology. They hold “luxury beliefs” and believe in authoritarian progressivism.

You want some examples? Let’s start with the civil service, aka “Wokehall”, a bureaucracy apparently ram-packed with left-wing activists. Then there’s the legacy media: in particular, the BBC, the Financial Times and The New York Times, which all prioritise dogma over truth.

Don’t get him going on universities and their “ideological monoculture”, even though Matt himself did rather well out of the system, gaining a professorship at an unusually young age. He has particular contempt for the John Lewis partnership (“completely and utterly captured” by DEI stuff), and he won’t be using Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which has also fallen.

Apart from David Aaronovitch, he has no time for the likes of Emily Maitlis (“completely misrepresents the evidence”), Gary Lineker, Rory Stewart or Jon Sopel. Then there’s the Davos Set (“failed economically. Failed socially. Failed civilisationally”).

And, talking of civilisation, we are on the verge of “demographic rupture”. He’s shoulder-to-shoulder with Donald Trump when he recently observed: “Certain places in Europe are not even recognisable … Friends come back and say, ‘I don’t recognise it.’ And that’s not in a positive way”.

Trump’s right, says Goodwin.

In sum, he’s worried that there are too many Muslims in Britain. He’s alarmed by research that shows that around 17 per cent of the UK population could be Muslim by 2050. Muslims are, bluntly, outbreeding “native British people”, and in future we need to put British children and families at the very centre of our aspirations and priorities.

But who is British? Well, in Goodwin’s mind the new elites believe in a “thin” version of citizenship, whereas he himself prefers a “thicker” version based on an “ethno-traditional” idea of shared history and ancestry. “It takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody ‘British’,” he says defiantly.

Now, this stuff has been around in one form or another for years. The Conservative MP Enoch Powell had a similar preoccupation with immigration and identity and is best remembered for his 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech in which, like Goodwin nearly 60 years later, he warned that mass immigration would lead to social conflict.

The difference is that Powell’s most incendiary speech cost him his job – sacked from the shadow cabinet by Edward Heath. Whereas Goodwin has just been selected by the Reform Party to contest the forthcoming by-election in Gorton and Denton.

This is what Sir Humphrey Appleby – that fictional Mandarin before Whitehall went all woke – might call a brave choice. And one has to wonder what kind of research Nigel Farage’s top team did before deciding to parachute Goodwin into this particular battleground.

There are constituencies with a higher proportion of Muslim voters than Gorton and Denton, but not many. The Henry Jackson Society website has a handy interactive calculator which shows that it ranks 23rd out of 600-odd voting areas for concentration of Muslims – around 30 per cent, in the 2021 census, compared with 6 per cent average for the UK as a whole. Around a third of residents were born outside the UK (the UK average is 17 per cent). Nine per cent are black.

It will be entertaining to see Goodwin engaging with the people he seeks to represent. Will he frankly tell them he’s worried about civilisational collapse in areas like Gorton and Denton because there are, tbh, too many Muslims? Will he speculate on how many of his would-be voters are “really” British, no matter what it says on a spreadsheet? Will he delicately ask them to slow down on the breeding front to allow native Brits to catch up?

If the voters haven’t watched it already, I can recommend an Al-Jazeera programme from last year in which Goodwin goes head to head with the presenter Mehdi Hasan over some of his more inflammatory language. He tells Hasan that the killing of the children in Southport in 2024 was “obviously about immigration”, even though the killer, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, was born in the UK. “He is a product of immigration,” says Goodwin. QED.

As the interview progresses, we find a certain slipperiness about statistics from the professor who so despises, say, Emily Maitlis for “completely misrepresenting the evidence”. Hasan repeatedly pins him down on figures he’s used but can’t defend under questioning. After a while the audience starts laughing.

I’m guessing the voters of Gorton and Denton have the same basket of concerns as anyone else. They’ll have worries about the cost of living. Then there will be the NHS and healthcare, followed by the economy and job security. There will be anxieties about the cost of childcare, about crime, about policing, about potholes.

What will the Reform candidate tell them about these everyday issues? “To a man with a hammer,” Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “everything looks like nail.” To Goodwin, every problem in Broken Britain is down to immigration, civilisational collapse and out-of-touch elites. It’s something like an obsession – but I’m not sure it’s an obsession that’s going to sing on the by-election doorstep.

If he sails home as the next MP for Gorton and Denton it will just prove how out of touch I am. And, Matt, dinner will be on me.

It’s business as usual for the Beckhams – the strategy is paying off

Striding out in a line dressed (almost) all in black, with slight smiles playing on their faces, the Beckhams looked a little like a high fashion mob family as they made a joint appearance in Paris on Monday. It probably wasn’t the sartorial reference they were going for – but it felt quite apt for a clan closing ranks, after a tearaway faction took a very public shot at their supremacy.

When David and Victoria’s 26-year-old son Brooklyn broke the Beckhams’ showbiz omerta last week with an explosive Instagram statement, one question immediately arose. How would Britain’s media-savvy golden couple respond to this devastating salvo, in which their eldest child accused them of, among a whole array of headline-grabbing allegations, “public promotion and endorsement above all else” and “trying endlessly to ruin [his] relationship” with wife Nicola Peltz Beckham?

Would they issue a rejoinder of their own, and risk being dragged into a social media war of words? Would they dredge out the wedding video to disprove their son’s suggestion that Victoria’s mother-of-the-groom dancing was “very inappropriate”? Or would they take a leaf out of the royal family’s “never complain, never explain” playbook and simply carry on as normal?

For the Beckhams, it was surely always going to be the latter option. They are, of course, seasoned professionals when it comes to the art of the agenda-shaping photo opp (remember when David and Victoria paraded around on the slopes of Courchevel amid allegations of an affair with Rebecca Loos?). And they will be all too aware that a smiling family snap is worth a thousand words (or, in Brooklyn’s case, 821 words).

Indeed, the past week or so seems to have been a case of business as usual for the clan – with an extra sprinkling of fashion industry stardust. The effect of it all? To make us feel silly for even questioning whether Brooklyn’s statement could ever really send this celebrity dynasty into a tailspin. Reports of Brand Beckham’s death, it seems, have been greatly exaggerated.

It was Victoria who appeared to be the main target of her son’s ire, thanks to the aforementioned dancing, along with allegations that her fashion brand had pulled out of making Nicola’s wedding dress at the “eleventh hour”. But the Beckham matriarch has managed to rise above it all with a clever (and at least partially organic) strategy bridging high and low culture.

Would Victoria have attended Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton’s 50th birthday party last weekend if Brooklyn hadn’t just lobbed a verbal grenade at the family brand? Most probably, yes. Friendship never ends, and all that. Will she have been hyper-aware of just how useful a photo of her and three of her Spice Girls pals (Mel B was off on her honeymoon) might prove as a distraction? Also yes. If ever there was a tactic precision-engineered to secure your place in the good graces of a certain millennial British demographic, it’s a Spice Girls reunion.

Indeed, the sense of nostalgia that Victoria can still conjure up was out in force on social media in the aftermath of Brooklyn’s big Prince Harry moment, as fans shared clips of old dance routines from her brief Noughties solo career (it surely wasn’t what her son had envisaged after that “inappropriate” jibe, but hey – taking the piss is a national sport on this side of the Atlantic). Her 2001 track “Not Such an Innocent Girl” even climbed to the top of the singles sale charts (trouncing the number six spot it reached 25 years earlier).

Monday, though, proved a reminder that, although she may have started as a slightly scrappy popstar, Victoria is now a respected fashion tastemaker. In a glamorous ceremony held during Paris Couture Week, the designer was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Rachida Dati, in recognition of her contribution to the industry. Also on the guest list were major players such as Anna Wintour and Francois-Henri Pinault, president of the luxury fashion conglomerate Kering.

Again, the date will surely have been in the calendar for months, but what impeccable timing. The Beckhams do big events like this one very well indeed. The kids (minus Brooklyn) all dressed in dark hues, mirroring their mum and dad in a display of sartorial unity. The photos posted on Instagram afterwards, showing them posing en famille in front of a lavish backdrop of chandeliers and gilded panelling, felt like a very chic power move.

Romeo and Cruz’s girlfriends, Kim Turnbull and Jackie Apostel, also present at the ceremony, were rigorously on brand, too, with social media posts in praise of Victoria’s “kindness and respect” (per Jackie) and “role model” status (per Kim). No nightmare mother-in-law narratives here; it was hard not to interpret their words as a rejoinder to the Peltz Beckham branch of the family.

Yes, those images and gushing soundbites arguably tally up with Brooklyn’s jab about “performative social media posts”. But, as ever with the Beckhams, even when you have a sneaking suspicion that you might be being played, it’s very easy to fall for the smiles, the shiny surfaces and the lookalike kids. Call it celebrity-induced cognitive dissonance if you will. The gears in the Beckham machine may be grinding away behind the scenes, but you have to hand it to them: they make it look very easy.

The family’s only wild card is 20-year-old Cruz, which can probably be explained by the fact that, well, he’s only 20 years old. The aspiring musician has been liking memes about his mum’s wedding dance, and earlier this week, posted a video clip showing him, his brother Romeo (23), and their respective girlfriends in a Paris taxi. “Imagine hating and we’re just here like,” he wrote in the caption.

His cryptic words appeared to allude to Brooklyn’s bombshell statement (in which one of the eldest Beckham son’s claims was that his brothers were “sent to attack [him] on social media” before blocking him “out of nowhere this last summer”). Crucially, they were also vague enough for plausible deniability – but Cruz (or possibly another member of Brand Beckham) seemed to have second thoughts, as the post was quickly deleted.

It can’t entirely be a coincidence, either, that both Cruz and Romeo appear to have made strides in their fledgling careers over the past few days, too. Last Friday, Romeo walked in the Willy Chavarria catwalk show as part of Paris’ menswear fashion week, marking his latest foray into the modelling industry (he’s previously walked for the likes of Versace and Balenciaga).

Cruz, meanwhile, has just announced his first UK tour with his band, the Breakers, along with European dates in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. While the Brooklyn furore must have been fraught for them to navigate, it has also surely thrown some refracted spotlight onto these solo endeavours.

Victoria’s next big moment will be her fashion brand’s AW26 show in the City of Light in just a few weeks. The “united front” strategy will doubtless still be in full force. Expect to see the Beckham clan 2.0, with associated plus ones, sitting pretty on the front row in support. Never has one famous family understood the power of image so well.

Additional reading: I’ve seen behind the scenes of Brand Beckham and it wasn’t always pretty