NEW YORK- Americans got a closer look on Tuesday at Los Angeles-bound celebrity couple David and Victoria Beckham, but some had trouble recognising likenesses of the fashionable duo unveiled at Madame Tussauds wax museum.

Wax figures of David (L) and Victoria Beckham (C) are welcomed by a wax figure of U.S. President George W. Bush at Madame Tussauds in New York January 23, 2007. [Reuters]

New York's Madame Tussauds museum put on display figures of the football idol and his wife, a former Spice Girl, dressed for the red carpet. They were draped in an American flag and greeted by U.S. President George W. Bush holding a sign saying "Welcome to America."

The couple will move to the United States in August when Beckham begins a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy football team in a deal worth $250 million (126 million pounds).

Figures of the couple, dubbed by the museum as the "Brad and Angelina of England," were loaned by the museum's London counterpart for two weeks and will be displayed in an "Opening Night" party scene featuring celebrities in evening wear.

But some museum visitors had trouble identifying the pair. "I don't know them," said New Yorker Rosanne Pelligrini, 54. "Oh wait, is that the soccer player. What's his name? Begins with a B?"

1

2