David Beckham may be famous for bending it on the soccer field, but his handlers have some locals bent out of shape over the gala that was supposed to take place Sunday night after the L.A. Galaxy play the Colorado Rapids.

The now-pooped posh party (no word on whether Mrs. Beckham, Victoria "Posh Spice," will accompany her hubby to Denver) was to take place at the Omni Interlocken, where invited guests were to mingle with the world's most famous soccer player, snack and sip cocktails.

But the Omni was dropped like a hot soccer ball on Tuesday and the whole shebang was going to move to The Church nightclub - until organizers canceled the party on Wednesday.

One event planner even contacted social sceners Jamie Angelich and Holly Kylberg to help sell tickets to the Beckham meet-and-greet at $200 a pop.

"We were holding these rooms and we could have sold out, but they canceled on us yesterday," Omni spokeswoman Deborah Dix said on Wednesday about the rooms reserved for Galaxy team members. "We don't know what happened at all, but we were quite upset."

Instead, Beckham and his teammates are supposedly staying at the Adam's Mark.

One of the organizers, who asked to remain anonymous, told me the party was canceled "a couple of days ago," but an e-mail that was leaked to me from one of the party planners was dated Tuesday night.

"We've had to cancel the whole thing due to the team's busy schedule," the unnamed event organizer told me.

SINGLES SCENE: We're not No. 1. Denver had topped Forbes.com's ranking of America's Best Cities For Singles from 2004 to 2006, but dropped to 16th in this year's list of 40 cities.

"But before Denver city elders start beating themselves up over this, we should note that this is largely because, amid several refinements to our methodology this year, we've switched to a new way of defining each city," according to the Forbes.com story.

"That means the youthful, nearby city of Boulder is no longer included in our assessment of Denver, and that hurt the Mile High City a lot. But Denver still has one major draw for singles: It's ranked No. 1 on affordability."

Instead, San Francisco took this year's top spot for singles. Also new this year, Forbes picked the most eligible bachelor and bachelorette in each city. Denver's bachelor? John Elway (who, by the way, has a steady girlfriend). Bachelorette? Fox 31 anchor Libby Weaver, a single mom. More at forbes.com/singles.

EAVESDROPPING on a hair products distributor talking to a woman about her hair color on the Glenmoor golf course: "I just love a woman who's chemically dependent."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail parkerp@Rocky MountainNews.com.