No Lights Out Here

BABY Spice Emma Bunton followed Posh and Scary by switching on the Christmas lights in Edmonton High Street, north London, yesterday the 27th.

What a Turn Off

Spice Girl Mel G has been given the brush-off by her neighbours after snubbing an invitation to switch on her town's Christmas lights.

She has already been slammed by locals for not being neighbourly enough.

But residents in Little Marlow, Bucks, had hoped that Mel G - better known as Scary Spice - would offer to turn on the lights to improve relations. But she has opted to switch on the Christmas lights in her home city of Leeds instead.

Officials in nearby Marlow revealed that the star has also turned down invitations in the past. Mel G was unavailable for comment.

No More Mini Skirts For Victoria

[No pictures provided with article]

PENCIL-thin Posh Spice Victoria Adams is so embarrassed by her skinny legs that she has stopped wearing mini-skirts, the Sunday People can reveal.

Posh - whose gaunt appearance has sparked fears she is becoming anorexic - has banned fashion buyer Brenda Gawen from picking out skirts that are above the knee.

Brenda said: "She thinks her legs are too skinny to be seen. She will only wear knee-length skirts now and refuses to look at short skirts which she used to wear all the time.

"Victoria has lost a lot of weight since last year. She's a Size 8 now. Her shape has totally changed and her legs are terribly thin."

Posh, 25, has shed a stone and a half since her son Brooklyn was born eight months ago.

As our pictures show, her figure has changed dramatically. She used to be curvaceous with an eye-catching cleavage and was happy to reveal her stunning legs in dresses slashed to the thigh.

But when she appeared at a Spice Girls photo exhibition earlier this month, she was painfully thin. Her cheeks were sunken, her bones clearly visible and she hid her long, lean legs beneath a knee-length dress.

Posh has hit back at claims that she is too skinny. She puts her weight loss down to her hectic lifestyle and the 200 nightly sit-ups she does with soccer star husband David Beckham.

Slimming expert Sue Ashworth said: "Posh Spice is certainly looking a little on the slim side. It's vital for Posh - like any new mum - to eat well and sensibly."

Brenda, who runs Tarts clothes shop in Waltham Cross, Herts, added: "Victoria has a very pretty face but she's not too fond of her legs at the moment. We have to find outfits which are sexy but not too short. Getting an outfit that is stylish, unique and professional is a tough call but I always find something just right."

But Brenda, says Posh is a model customer despite her fame and fortune.

She said: "She comes in with her mum or sister and is so normal. She'll wait for a changing room if they are taken without making a fuss."

Sacky Spice

ANGRY Victoria Adams has sacked one of the bodyguards hired to protect her son Brooklyn, the diary can reveal.

Posh blew her top after David Beckham told her the flirting minder had been chatting up an air hostess on an LA flight while he was on duty guarding the eight-month-old.

The bodyguard joined Beckham and Brooklyn on a surprise visit earlier this month while Victoria was in Hollywood meeting movie bosses.

And the cheeky minder finally clinched his P45 when he charged a large bill at the Beckham's luxury Sunset Boulevard hotel to their account .

It followed a number of run-ins with Posh who feared her son was not getting proper protection from his new minder - one of a team employed in August after kidnap fears.

Friends say they have since turned their Hertfordshire mansion into a fortress. Each minder has a self-contained flat and whenever Brooklyn travels to the couple's apartment in Cheshire a heavy goes too.

"LA was the final straw for Victoria - they both adore Brooklyn, he is the centre of their world," a pal told me.

"They want him to be safe at all times but feel their trust has been broken and Victoria is furious at the minder's behaviour."

But Posh's movie trip was still a success. Despite missing out on a Charlie's Angels role I can reveal she came back clutching scripts for sequels to three big money comedies: The Mask, Dumb & Dumber and Austin Powers.

"Victoria was gutted when she didn't get Charlie but the others soon put the smile back on her face," one told me. "She's planning to go back to LA early next year for auditions and screen tests," her pal reveals. "She knows there's a long way to go yet but it's looking good."

And there's little danger of Posh and Becks being unable to adapt to the lavish Hollywood lifestyle.

Friends tell me they've just been shopping for their seven-bedroom, £2.5million mansion.

Dubbed Beckingham Palace, among the very tasteful items on the list were leopardskin print carpets for her and ornamental fish tanks he wants built into alcoves in the mock Georgian mansion.

So Brooklyn won't be protected from ALL the evils of the world, then.

Wannabe Pals?

-RUMOR ALERT-

Geri Halliwell has made an emotional plea to her old band the Spice Girls to bury the hatchet and become friends again, I can reveal.

One-time Ginger Spice, who pipped Emma Bunton to the No 1 spot two weeks ago with Lift Me Up, has been in contact with all the members of group.

Geri, 27, rang Emma, 23, twice last week asking her to forget the past and what had gone on. The millionaire star said she hoped there were no hard feelings about her winning the battle of the Spice Girls.

She has also called Sporty Spice Mel C and put out feelers to Scary Spice Mel G.

And she had a hush-hush dinner date with Posh Spice Victoria Adams and David Beckham in the South of France.

Singer Geri and the rest of the best-selling band had hardly spoken since she quit a year and a half ago, 18 months after their first hit Wannabe.

At the time they said it was over "artistic differences".

But a friend said: "Geri and the girls go back a long time. Now she feels it is time to start talking and seeing each other again."

The Full Monty?

Posh Spice may strip off for her big movie break, the Sunday Mirror revealed. Victoria made the revelation while filming her Channel 4 celebrity documentary Victoria's Secrets For New Year's Day. "Victoria was telling Roger Moore and asking if he had any tips," a source says.

That's Sweet

CADBURY'S has approached Emma Bunton to be the new Milk Tray choc girl.

Baby Spice has been offered pounds 100,000 to star in TV ads for the chocolates.

Model and Mirror columnist Caprice pulled out earlier because of other commitments. Cadbury's ditched the famous Milk Tray man two years ago, saying he was old-fashioned.

"Emma's thinking about the offer," said Matthew Wright's source.

Christmas Single News

Ok, so the Spice Girls won't be releasing a Christmas song this year... but just try and keep them away from the festive action!

A few months ago, the Girls were asked by the BBC to take part in a follow-up to Perfect Day. This time the song is called "It's Only Rock n Roll" - a hit for The Rolling Stones in 1974.

It features a huge range of pop and rock stars, ranging from Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones and Lionel Ritchie to Natalie Imbruglia, Ronan Keating and Jay Kay.

The release date will be 13 December 1999 and all proceeds will be donated to the Childrens Wish Appeal.

Also...

Northern Star, the title track to Melanie Cs debut album will be released on Monday 22nd November.

Mel C's Unspicey Life

Mel C sings about press intrusion in her new single, ‘Northern Star’, which is out this week, but she’s revealed to Radio 1 that the press don't seem to be interested in her. Whilst the rest of the girls have a Spicey life, Mel says hers is pretty boring.

"I spend most of my life working and they don’t like to write about your work, which is quite sad, y’know, because I’ve got a great album here. But they choose not to write about that because I haven’t got a boyfriend, you know", she says. "They’d rather write about who I’m sleeping with at the moment. That’s just the way it is and I’m quite grateful, really. I’d rather just keep me head down".

Variety Spice For Jade

YETanother spanner has been thrown in the works of the on-off relationship between Baby Spice Emma Buntonand Jade Jonesfrom boyband Damage. Last week it was revealed that Jade and Emma had rekindled their romance, after parting in May, by snogging each other at a showbiz bash.

Emma's other fella, Rio Ferdinand, was gutted at the time but perhaps Rio found something to put a smile back on his face. Jade, it seems, has enjoyed a night on the town with a mystery brunette. Jade and the girl partied well into the early hours yesterday morning at London's trendy Chinawhites. Jade seemed keen not to be photographed with his friend as they left.

Not Much Spice Left

MEL C has got a SEVENTH tattoo, and now has so many she's running out of room. The singer's latest addition is a Chinese dragon on her right leg. And the Spice Girl has admitted she may have at least one more done. Mel, 25, already had a Celtic cross on her left arm and two tattoos on her right arm - an armband and Chinese writing. She has the word Angel on her stomach, a phoenix on her back and a lotus flower on her lower spine. The dragon tattoo took two hours to be completed but Mel said: "It didn't really hurt that much, I'm getting used to the pain. The only one that really hurt was the one on my back of a phoenix. "That left me with tears in my eyes, I can tell you." Mel added: "I might still get another one. It just depends what kind of mood I'm in. "Never say never. I love them and I think they look great. "The reason I had this Chinese dragon done was because I read that the phoenix needed to balance out. It's like a Yin and Yang thing." Mel has already had a No4 hit with Goin' Down and releases her second solo single Northern Star next week.

You're Right..There's No Rush

MEL C stretches out on the back seat of her chauffeur-driven car and declares that gym-loving, high-kicking Sporty Spice is knackered. "I had a late night," she yawns. "Didn't get back from Top Of The Pops until about 11 o'clock and I'm feeling it. I might have had a kip in the car but...." She can't.

She has a new single and a live slot on Friday's Children In Need to promote which means talking to the likes of me instead of catching up on sleep during the one-hour journey from her hotel to the BBC's Elstree studios, where the Spice Girls are rehearsing for their Christmas shows.

She soon perks up when her mum Joan calls to ask her if she's heard the news about Cherie Blair's pregnancy. "It's fabulous isn't it?" she says once her mum has rung off "A woman of her age, with her career and everything, deciding to have another kid. Just shows you, doesn't it."

But that's not so much about Girl Power as a verbal two fingers at the people who've been getting on her back about still being single while her Spice Girl pals are getting married and having babies.

"See, I've got at least another 20 years before I have to settle down and start a family," she laughs. "That takes the pressure off a bit doesn't it?"

Sarcasm is in, and in a big way, with Melanie C. Call it natural Scouse wit if you like, but once she steps out from the shadows of the more loudmouthed members of the Spice gang she's got a lot to say.

"I think it's so insulting when people go on about me not having a fella," she says. "Not insulting to me. It's water off a duck's back to me. But what about all those single people reading stuff like that and thinking they must be freaks or something.

"There are loads of people who are happy being single. All my mates I grew up with in Liverpool are footloose and fancy-free.

None of them feel pressured into getting married and none of them are up the duff. Why should they be?"

I suggest they might all be lesbians as well, and Melanie latches onto the joke straightaway. "Don't start me on that one. Are people really that uneducated they think just because I have my hair cut short and have a few tattoos it means I'm gay? That's like saying all murderers have beards and funny teeth." Obviously they are, because Melanie's sexuality had been the subject of industry whispers even before she ditched the shellsuits and trainers for the Sid Vicious look .

"I think it's funny," she says. "I'm in the public eye and people will always have a pop, but I know the truth and so do my mates. And no, when I'm alone I don't stare in the mirror and cry about it."

If anything the fuss has put Melanie off men altogether for the time being and she's taking herself off the market.

"You know what, I'm not even looking for a man right now.

"My priorities are my career, mates and my family. But I'm a great believer in fatalism. If the right man came along and swept me off my feet then who am I to stand in the way of destiny?"

All joking apart, Melanie doesn't want to appear too defensive. She can handle relationships and isn't frightened of getting her fingers burnt if the man turns out to be more interested in her fame than in her. Still, the big relationship hasn't happened.

"I'm a trusting person and it'll be my downfall. But that won't stop me trying things. You have to make mistakes to learn don't you?"

Not that she's taken a vow of celibacy. Rumours have linked her to a string of men from Robbie Williams to Robbie Fowler, Brookside star Paul Byatt and Red Hot Chilli Pepper Anthony Kiedis.

So far she's only come clean on Williams. "Maybe we had a thing going on," she says. "But it ended with Robbie being himself, doing his lad thing - and the girls give him a really hard time now."

But imagine the publicity if she was to re-ignite the fires of passion with Robbie. "I know what you're getting at and I'm not saying anything," she says, easily uncovering the not-too-subtle ploy to swing the conversation Gingerwards. She seems genuinely nonplussed as to whether Geri and Chris Evans had a relationship or if, like the rest of us, she believes it was a big juicy stunt.

"I know I made jokes about it at the time but I hope it wasn't true in a way, because I'd hate to think Geri was hurting at the moment," is her surprising reaction, considering the Spice Girls are supposed to hate their lapsed member.

But it seems rumours of a life-long curse on all things Ginger are also exaggerated. "Of course I've spoken to Geri since she left," she says, disproving the common belief that only Posh Spice had done so.

"And I'd really love to catch up properly with her but time doesn't allow it. Anyway it's not that weird that I'm not in constant touch with someone I used to work with. If you got a new job you'd probably lose touch with your old work pals pretty soon."

It's a fair point, but what about Girl Power, that bond that could not be broken? "Listen. What happened when Geri left stays with us five because it was about us," says Melanie. "In this business seeing friends is all about paths crossing and at the moment we don't really cross paths with Geri. When we do we'll talk properly, simple as that."

And what will she say to her? "I'll ask her for the inside scoop on what Chris Evans is like as a lover of course!" She smiles with the kind of Mafia hunch that says "Enough about Geri".

What about tattoos then? At last count she had seven, including last week's Chinese dragon on her calf. "Oh, here we go," she says. "It's my body you know. I'll do what I want with it. I love my tattoos and I've no regrets about any of them."

"I think they're beautiful. It's not excessive, but I have to admit after each one I say that's it, then get the inspiration for another. And they're bigger every time."

Even her mum has one and Melanie admits she finds a ready ally in 45-year-old cabaret singer Joan. "We talk all the time on the phone," she says. "It's at least five times a day. She's always there for me."

Melanie, whose new single Northern Star is out tomorrow, also reveals that she spends a lot more time in her native Liverpool than many realise. "I go up there at the weekends and I've got a lovely flat in Albert Dock where Richard and Judy used to be filmed," she says. "I still hang out with all my schoolmates and I always will. In a perfect world I'd live in Liverpool all the time but in the music business you have to be in London.

"I'm counting the days down to Christmas with my family. We've got Spice Girls' concerts to do in London and Manchester and then we're all going our separate ways." That leads inevitably to the question of when the Spice Girls will split for good. They all have successful solo projects off the ground so wouldn't this be the ideal time to call it quits? Melanie has the company line to follow, but she does admit the question has been raised among the girls.

"Of course we've talked about going out while we're still at the top but that's all it's been - talk," she says. "The Spice Girls will be around for as long as the fans want us."

Other bands have emerged to challenge the Spice supremacy but they sold out the upcoming eight dates in record time so Melanie's not too worried. In any case she doesn't have much time for chart-topping upstarts like Steps. "There are two kinds of performers in this industry," she says. "There's proper artists who sing live and then there are Butlins Redcoats like Steps."

It's a good line of which she's rightly proud and in between self- congratulatory giggles it's one she refuses to retract. "It's my opinion and I can say what I like," she says. "Anyway it's what everyone thinks."

With that she's off to re-take her place as the "quiet one" in rehearsals.

But you get the feeling that pretty soon she's going to do a Robbie and eclipse the lot of them.

Spice Girls Have New Years Eve Gig

From WENN correspondent Sophie Vokes Dudgeon in Los Angeles The Spice Girls are secretly arranging a massive millennium concert to ensure they are on top of the pop world when Big Ben strikes 12 on Millennium Eve.

The wannabe singers had hoped to keep their Millennium gig plans quiet until next month (Dec99), but word slipped out in America yesterday (12NOV99) when the girls agreed to let a recorded segment of their show be used for a charity broadcast.

The Spice Girls will join The Bee Gees, Blondie, N'Sync, Phil Collins, and Sting as some of the live artists whose Millennium gigs are being showcased on the 24 hour telethon Millennium Live...Humanity Broadcast.

Live AID producer Hal Uplinger is the brains behind the TV show, which will be broadcast across the world.

John Michaelli, spokesman for American broadcaster PAX TV, confirms, "Details of the Spice Girls show are sketchy at the moment, we think it's going to be in London, but wherever it is we have the rights to go live and broadcast songs from the venue."

It's Only Rock 'N Roll

Following in the holiday tradition of Band Aid's 1984 single, "Do They Know It's Christmas," a group of artists, including Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, the Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, and James Brown have teamed up on a new version of the Rolling Stones' 1974 single, "It's Only Rock 'N Roll."

According to the British Press Association, the revamped Stones track will be released in the U.K. next month to raise funds for Children's Promise. The non-profit children's organization is currently attempting to get people to donate their last hour's pay from the last day of work this year to its Millennium Final Hour Appeal.

Money raised by the Final Hour Appeal will be split amongst several different European charities, such as BBC Children In Need, the Children's Society, ChildLine, and Comic Relief, among others.

"The Hollywood Reporter" indicates that Children's Promise is hoping to bring in an estimated £200,000 ($320,000) with the ensemble single of "It's Only Rock 'N Roll," which is currently scheduled to be released in Britain on December 13. No word yet if "It's Only Rock 'N Roll" will get a proper release in the U.S.; we'll keep you posted.

Turn that Frown Upside Down

NO wonder Posh Spice looks glum - soccer ace hubby David Beckham turned up for a dinner date more than 90 minutes late.

Glamorous Victoria, 25, voted Britain's most miserable celebrity in a new poll, waited at The Ivy restaurant in London while Becks, 24, jetted in from Scotland after Saturday's crunch match.

An onlooker at the exclusive restaurant - favoured by stars including Tom Cruise and Madonna - said: "She was pouting even more than usual as David kept her waiting with her mum and dad. When Becks finally got to the restaurant he had to do plenty of apologising - but they left hand in hand.

Mel C Gets Digital

Mel C will launch Digital One, the UK's first digital radio network, today (November 15) and the first track aired in crystal clear digital quality will be her own 'Northern Star'.

The song is to be played by Core Radio, a digital station set up in direct competition with the UK's major pop music station Radio One. Core is one of five new radio stations that launch today, making Digital One the world's largest digital radio network.

Mel releases the single 'Northern Star', from her album of the same name, today.

Possibly A Christmas Single?

Could the Spice Girls be planning an assault on the Xmas No.1 after all? It's be heard that they've asked ex-Wizzard man Roy Wood if they can play his classic I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day on their tour next month and if it goes down well, they want it out as a single. The Mirror can also reveal that Mel C will perform solo at Children In Need[UK] on November 26.

Victoria Hits the Roof

POSH Spice Victoria Adams is set to hit the roof in front of thousands of revellers on New Year's Eve.

A giant picture of her will be beamed on to the ceiling as they party in the Millennium Dome.

Then the dazzling full-colour image will start BOUNCING off the walls.

The sexy singer will top the bill in a special Hall of Fame when the Queen opens the £758million Dome.

The spectacular light show features some of the greatest people and minds of the 20th century.

But one of the organisers said: "Victoria is as much a household name as any of them.

"Everybody knows her all over the world.

"She has become a leading figure in British life and we want people from different parts of culture, not just great writers and thinkers."

Victoria, who is married to Manchester United soccer star David Beckham, is trying to launch a movie career.

She was recently in Hollywood talking to a series of top producers.

Ticket sales for the Dome have now topped more than one million.