Beckham house search, playing poker with Eva, more

                    

	Eva Longoria's fiance, Spurs G Tony Parker, has a tune that's getting a lot of club play. John Sciulli/WireImage.com
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Things haven't exactly been going David Beckham's way since he signed his lucrative contract to join the Los Angeles Galaxy in January. First he suffered a serious knee injury that will sideline him until the end of April and possibly May and now he's having a difficult time finding a new home in Los Angeles. While many outlets had soccer's royal family all but moving into the former mansion of Meg Ryan in Bel-Air last week, the asking price for the seven-bedroom, six-bathroom house is apparently too high for the Beckhams.

While the palatial palace is no bargain at $20 million, you'd think that after inking a reported $250 million deal that Becks wouldn't worry about paying a little extra for a place that Victoria apparently fell in love with after she toured the estate. After all, in the immortal words of Tony Montana, what's a mill here, a mill there? Despite the setback the Beckhams still have plenty of time to find their American dream house. Becks isn't scheduled to make his MLS debut until the end of July.

• I had the chance to play in the Los Angeles Avengers' Charity Poker Tournament benefiting PADRES Contra El Cancer on Sunday. The highlight of the event was getting to play next to Eva Longoria, who was sporting a Spurs hat, and faring far better than me after I got knocked out before I could even order my second drink. Maybe if I'd stuck around longer I would have told Eva that Tony Parker's song Balance Toi is finding its way into a surprisingly high number of club mixes even though most people moving to the beat have no clue what "Tony P" is singing.

• With March Madness in full force, the fine folks at Portal B Ball have answered the prayers of hoop fans looking for a pickup game during lunch breaks, tailgates or while stuck in traffic. (OK, maybe the last one's not so safe, but it's just a thought.) The newly patented product lets you a attach a regulation hoop to a standard trailer hitch on the back of your car and play a half court game or a full court game by parking two vehicles opposite each other. Yeah, the latter idea should definitely not be tried while in a traffic jam.

• There's nothing worse than Mondays when you're in high school, but chances are last Monday was the best day students at Richards High in Oak Lawn in Illinois will ever have. That's because they were greeted by Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson and then entertained by Grammy Award winner Kanye West during a rally to celebrate renovations to the school's gym donated by 2000 graduate Dwyane Wade. While the injured Miami Heat guard was only able to make an appearance via satellite, he and T-Mobile joined forces to get Chicago natives Hudson and West to perform at the event. T-Mobile, which recently released the D-Wade Sidekick 3, also partnered up with Wade to help donate upgrades to the school's gym, which will take place this summer, as well as scholarship program. Oak Lawn mayor, David Heilmann, commemorated the day by declaring it "Dwayne Wade Day," and presented a plaque to Wade's wife, Siohvaughn, and mother, Jolinda.

• I'm guessing this kid wasn't too thrilled with North Carolina State's loss to West Virginia on Tuesday. At least the Wolfpack women's team is headed to its first Sweet 16 in six years. Um, let's not bring up North Carolina's success in both tournaments around him, OK?

• Even Tennessee Titans fans are through supporting Pacman Jones. A group of angry Titans fans launched nopacman.com, a site where you can sign a petition to let Titans management know you want to see Pacman off the team and predict the time and date of Pacman's next arrest. The winner gets free Titans season tickets.

In a related story the University of Iowa purchased the rights to seven Web sites that could have been negative to the athletic department and its coaches, such as firekirkferentz.com. "It's kind of a sad commentary that we needed to do this," Rick Klatt, associate athletics director of external affairs, told the Des Moines Register. "But it struck me last fall that this was probably the prudent thing to do on behalf of our staff, so I went ahead and purchased a handful of sites." Unfortunately for the school, firesteveaford.com was already taken.

Quick Hits: Josh Groban was presented with an official Atlanta Thrashers jersey before his concert at Philips Arena on Saturday and liked it so much that he took the stage with his No. 1 uni and performed a few songs in it. ... Former Sixers owner Pat Croce has signed on as one of four judges for the next season of ABC's American Inventor, which premieres in June. ... Bob Arum is hoping to get Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski on the undercard of his next fight in Chicago. His last fight two weeks ago netted the Golden Domer $40,000, which went to charities. ... Peyton Manning will make his long awaited debut as host of Saturday Night Live' this week. No word on if Tony Romo will be there as well to watch Carrie Underwood, who is scheduled to be the musical guest.