If you didn’t know much about David Beckham other than his soccer prowess, half-naked billboards and marriage to Posh Spice Girl Victoria, you might have been surprised to see and hear him on The Tonight Show recently. A very polite, slightly nervous English chap, who dressed up for the show (is that just a British thing?) in a suit and tie, chatted with Jay like they were mates – well almost, they are actually neighbors. And in connection with that, Beckham took the opportunity to apologize for all the paparazzi.

The surprise about the usually silent superstar is that, while he looks like he might be upper crust, he is actually a working class bloke. His accent bespeaks his upbringing with a gas-fitter dad and a hairdresser mum. He was really quite humble and proud when he said he is living his father’s dream. (His dad was a huge soccer fan and his parents completely supported him throughout his career.)

On to the interview.

What is it with Jay that he has to continually pull out the juvenile pranks to try to embarrass guests with ambush photos, video and “grade school” level questions? Didn’t he learn anything from his recent “tail between his legs” apology to Ryan Philippe for going down a ridiculous gay round of queries?

When Jay showed the aforementioned half-naked billboard, Beckham was genuinely uncomfortable. He said he was “so nervous” doing the shoot because he had never posed in his underwear and he knew his wife, friends and mother would see it. While being nervous and shy can be the kiss-of-death for a talk show guest, Beckham made it work by coming off real and charming.

Eventually they got to the reason for his visit, his 100th game for England (the National Team), an achievement only reached by four other players in history, and not for 20 years. Oh yes, he did mentioned that the Galaxy’s season was about to begin – good thing as we seem to recall they paid him a pretty penny to turn around the fortunes of the LA franchise.

The best part of the interview, however, was not part of his interview at all. It was actually when the next guest, Sherri Shepherd, came out and continually flirted her butt off, saying “he’s fine!” over and over again. She admitted that she even had cut out a picture from a magazine of Beckham and his wife in bed, and put her face over Victoria’s…and it was “HOT!” The entire time, Beckham’s reactions were priceless. Reverting to his silent nature, he never uttered a word, just grinned appropriately and laughed like he loved every minute of it. And we believe he was, which made the audience love it even more. Sometimes, silence is golden.

If anyone should be naturally equipped to make a great showing on a talk show, it’s a career politician several months into a national campaign. They’re rehearsed and experienced, with a ton of anecdotes at their fingertips, plus ample prepping by a squad of professionals behind the scenes. We expect them to be relaxed, witty, informed and on their game

Senator Hillary Clinton fulfilled all expectations when she swept onto The Tonight Show in her customary pantsuit, topped in bright red to up the energy quotient. She pre-empted any questions on her recent “misspeaking” about her experiences in a Bosnian landing zone and confessed, “Obviously, I had a lapse.”

When Hillary and Jay went after the serious subjects, she delivered her opinions with a humorous slant, proclaiming, “It’s the economy, stupid – and unfortunately it’s a stupid economy.” When Leno brought up Chelsea, noting, “She said you would make a better president than her dad,” Hillary had a perfect comeback, “Oh, she’s such a smart young woman.”

Her natural gesturing kept the visual energy high and she made an excellent connection with her host. Her body language was solid, as she leaned in toward Leno and patted his desk to make her points. But she barely misses a 5 Whisper rating because she failed to maintain eye contact consistently. This appearance was marred by an annoying habit of looking at the floor for long stretches, making it impossible for the camera to find her and keeping the viewer from making a connection. If she could direct some of that eye line to the crowd, she would have aced our scoreboard.

Ryan Phillippe’s appearance on Jay Leno left something to be desired…and not on Phillippe’s part.

He did his best to roll with Leno’s endless jokes about the fact that Phillippe’s first job was as the first openly gay teenager on a daytime soap opera, (One Life to Live). After Jay asked him to look into the camera and give us his “gayest look,” (for which Leno has since apologized after mounting pressure from the gay and lesbian communities) Phillippe not only declined, but jokingly threatened to walk off the show, even going to far as to stand up, take a few steps and say goodbye to the crowd. When the unrelenting Leno implied he had plenty more fodder with which to embarrass Phillippe, including a naked Armani jeans commercial he’d done many years ago, Phillippe threatened, more seriously this time, to walk. Then, when Jay informed him he had the commercial ready to show, Phillippe literally put his head in his hands, saying “I’m outta here.”

While Phillippe was entertaining in an uncomfortable way, his nervous habits of rarely making eye contact with the host and constantly rubbing his hands on his jeans were distracting and made for a less-than-ideal interview, even when Jay kept baiting him.

Luckily, he was able to talk quite a lot about his new film “Stop-Loss” and how it is really told from the soldier’s point of view. He admitted that during the Gulf war period, he and a buddy went to enlist. The buddy did, and he just took the free T-shirt and went to New York to pursue acting.

He did discuss his kids, his distaste for Googling because anonymous people can say hateful things, and his love of all things Frank Sinatra (whom Jay opened for years ago). Toward the end of the interview, Leno, one more time, brought up the gay teenage thing and Phillippe basically ignored him saying “Anyway…” They laughed, but like a dentist appointment, we’re guessing Phillippe was glad this interview was over.