>Geri's got boy in Blue

Singer Geri Halliwell turned up at Wimbledon yesterday with a hunky pal — Duncan James from boyband Blue. The ex-Spice Girl, 31, wore a short tennis-style pink skirt as she strolled next to the 24-year-old star. Duncan later showed his talent with a racket as he practised his serve at Wimbledon’s kids’ club. But Geri snubbed calls from fans to have a go herself. Perhaps she was worried about another love match.

source: the sun

>Halliwell has voice lessons after op

Geri Halliwell is taking voice lessons after undergoing surgery on her throat. The former Spice Girls singer is taking lessons from top voice coach Penny Davis. Davis, who works with the National Theatre in London, has helped the former Spice Girl singer to discover new tones to her voice.

Halliwell's spokesman told The Sun: "After a throat operation it is a normal procedure to take some lessons to retrain your voice." A friend of Halliwell's said the singer had nodules on her throat and needed surgery to have them removed.

The friend added: "Penny has agreed to see Geri once a week to help improve her voice. She's one of the best in the business and Geri thinks she has done so much for her in just a few weeks. Since starting the lessons, she thinks she's found new tones to her voice. She's really excited about her new album and is proud of the new songs."

source: ananova

>Melanie C is not 'bad sport'

Mel C has denied she's being a "bad sport" by refusing to reunite with the rest of the Spice Girls for a tour. In a message on her website, she refuted stories that she was refusing to co-operate with plans by the rest of the group and their former manager Simon Fuller for a reunion tour.

She wrote: "It's really annoying to keep reading all these lies." The former Spice Girl says she's never even been approached about a tour, adding: "I am completely unaware of any of the other girls' desire to get back together."

Melanie, who this week has been touring Barfly venues in a low-key UK tour, said: "I am so excited about my new album. The tour is proving to be a huge success and is completely sold out. I chose to play these small venues and did not advertise these shows as I am not promoting anything. They are for fun, for you guys and to try out new songs before I start recording."

Melanie plans to issue her as-yet-untitled third solo album on her own Red Girl Records. Earlier this year she was dropped by Virgin Records who released her previous two albums, Northern Star and Reason.

source: ananova

>Spice Girls drop greatest hits album for now

The Spice Girls have dropped plans to release a greatest hits album after a series of rows between them. The Sun says the five have pulled the release date because Mel C didn't want to be part of a concert promoting the CD. And bosses at Virgin Records refused to spend millions of pounds plugging the disc unless all five agreed to sing at the one-off gig.

The paper says Mel B, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham were keen to go ahead with the show. But apparently Mel C still believes she can find solo success, says the paper. A source said: "Mel refuses to join the girls on stage because she still dreams of making it big by herself. But she's on her smallest tour ever - and that's struggling. She told the others she was happy to do TV interviews to plug the album but that was it. The money men at Virgin said a big concert was the only way to guarantee massive publicity, so they pulled plans for a release in the first week of November."

The source added: "They have agreed to release the greatest hits in 2006. It's billed as ten years of the Spice Girls since they released their first single Wannabe in 1996. The girls reckon Mel will be back with her tail between her legs by then. Her solo career will be a distant memory so she'll have no choice but to jump on the bandwagon."

source: ananova

>Mel B and Ginger Spice bump into each other in LA

Former Spice Girl Mel B says she didn't have much to say to Ginger Spice when the pair met recently in Los Angeles. Scary Spice, who is trying to carve out an acting career, bumped into Geri Halliwell while out shopping recently, says the Daily Star.

She said: "I had just left a department store in LA and Geri was right there in front of me. I was like: "Er, hi." I had nothing to say. "Moments like that are just so awkward. With Geri, it's like we were sisters but now we're both totally doing our own things so it was really weird meeting her like that.

"We just don't have the time to see each other any more. And there's nothing I would really want to say to her anyway," added Mel B.

source: ananova