Spice Girls: all is not fragrant
As members reunite after 11 years, the inside story of their feuds, jealousies, backbiting revealed
THEY sang Friendship Never Ends.
But that would not seem to be the case when it comes to the Spice Girls.
To great fanfare, and with megawatt smiles, the most successful girl group of all time have announced that they are reforming for a valedictory tour, 24 years after Ginger, Posh, Sporty, Baby and Scary first lined up to enthral a generation of teenage girls.
Well, four of them are, anyway. Posh, aka Victoria Beckham, wife of former football star David and now a serious fashion designer and mother of four, was conspicuous by her absence yesterday.
The negotiations that led to this announcement have been fraught.
A well-placed source said there has been a vicious fallingout between Mel B, Mel C, Emma Bunton and Geri Horner with Victoria and their former manager, Simon Fuller.
So much so that it led to a four-letter text being sent to Victoria by Mel B this year.
The bad feeling seems to centre on a sense of betrayal the remaining four feel about Victoria, 44, and Fuller, 58, pulling out of the tour, having apparently said at a meeting in February they were fully on board.
Stirring up tensions further, according to our source, was Victoria posing in Spice-inspired outfits for her Vogue shoot this year, which drove Mel B into a foul-mouthed rage.
Last week, with a typically outrageous flourish, Mel B dressed up as Victoria Beckham for a Halloween party, holding a sign to indicate that she wouldn’t tour even if the fans begged. She added that they have a “love-hate relationship”.
The missing Spice wasn’t mentioned in the official video yesterday, although she did send out a friendly tweet about her former mates.
However, despite relations reaching an all-time low, the four remaining Spice Girls are hoping desperately she might join them on stage for at least one night out of the six.
One source closely connected to their camp said the thinking is that she might do it to “remind David of the woman he fell in love with”, while friends of Victoria scoff at the idea, saying hell will freeze over before she puts on those platform trainers.
What is the truth about the comeback – which may net them £8 million (R148.4m) or more each? And will they really be able to sell out Wembley Stadium without Posh on board?
Mel B’s enthusiasm for this tour is related to the fact that she is absolutely broke after exiting her marriage to film producer Stephen Belafonte.
She was recently ordered to pay Belafonte £270 000 in legal fees and more than £3 000 a month in child support payments by a judge.
Funds will come in from a memoir, Brutally Honest, and she was given a pay rise by Simon Cowell for being a judge on America’s Got Talent.
But Mel’s lawyers said in court last year that she had spent all of her £38m fortune, and that she and Belafonte couldn’t even pay their tax bills at the end of every year.
One can see how the prospect of earning up to £10m apiece for a mini-tour is so appealing.