As she gets ready to zig-a-zig-ah once more, Melanie Brown has something else girls really, really want - a handsome new suitor. The man romancing the feisty mother-of-two is film producer Stephen Belafonte, who has travelled to the UK with the Spice Girl and her daughters, eight-year-old Phoenix Chi, and Angel, nearly two months.
And Stephen - whose credits include last year's big screen satire Thank You For Smoking - has definitely put the spring back into Mel's step. At the press conference announcing the Spice Girls tour, the Leeds-born singer was on fabulous form, having shed two stone in baby weight since Angel's birth in April. Her shapely frame was poured into a corset top and figure-hugging skirt, and she was sporting a sleek new 'do.
Showing she'd lost none of her zest, Mel leapt off the stage and threatened to strip one reporter to see how fit he was after he questioned whether the girls still had the stamina for their energetic dance routines. Later, she quipped cheekily: "All our boyfriends are coming. Mel C is going to get pregnant on this tour."
Older and wiser they may be - the girls now have six children between them - but the pep is still there. And the jokes were coming thick and fast at Thursday's press call. Victoria giggled that the reunion tour was a bit like being "divorced then getting back with your ex", adding that Geri was just lucky to have been allowed back, after being the first to jump ship in 1998.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
