Mel to lose a place in the country - July 2002
A ’friend’ of Mel B has told the Sunday Mirror that the scary one is going to have to sell her beloved country estate. Mel, whose earnings allegedly dropped down to £500,000 from £6 million (poor girl) faces a cash flow crisis and is having to put the 8 bedroom mansion on the market for £4 million. "Mel has a lot of pride and hates to admit it but the house has just drained her of cash. She can still afford a nice place and is deciding whether she should stay in the country or move to London" the ’friend’ told the weekend rag. But there is a catch - potential buyers will also have to shell out an extra half a million quid on the contents of the house - including Mel’s oh so tasteful adjacent loos. You can take the girl out of Leeds and all that...

Mel looks to USA to revive career - June 2002
We know that Mel B has been over in the USA of late, hounding producers and other creative people to revive her dead-in-the-water career. Apparently the lass still has her powers of persuasion though as she has recently confirmed that Prince will be working with her. (Maybe this is a sign of desperation on Prince’s part - he is hardly a major selling artist anymore.) She can also be found sniffing around Ja Rule and Jay-Z. Don’t get us wrong, MyVillage liked Mel B just fine when she was in the Spices, and even for a little while after. But how someone can go from presenting ’This Is My Moment’ on ITV1 to being a credible RnB singer in the US is beyond us.

More Leeds mouth on the radio - 02/05/02
After abject failure on the telly (see This Is My Moment - in fact, don’t see it), Mel’s now going to have a go at radio presenting.

Scary takes over Chris Tarrant’s breakfast radio show on Capital Radio for a week in May while he’s on holiday. Co-presenter, Dr Fox, has warned Mel (who he refers to as Gobby Spice), "If she talks too much crap or gets too mouthy, I’ve already got the Mel Bell ready to sound, at which point the producer will remove her microphone."

Meanwhile, Mel’s ex Jimmy Gulzar is ready to reveal all about life with a Spice for a wife on a TV documentary. It’s alleged that Jimmy says that Mel B, and her supposed rival, Geri, are actually closer than you might reckon: "Melanie showed me and told me how close she was with Geri. Melanie and Geri have a relationship with each other that goes deeper than a lot of people think..."

What on earth can he mean? You can catch the programme - imaginatively titled "Mel B’s Ex" on BBC Choice at 10:30pm on Friday 10 May.

Max no longer a Factor for Mel B - 23/04/02
Spice Girl Mel B has split from her boyfriend of 2 years, actor and musician Max Beesley. It is thought that Mel instigated the split with Max over dinner at the Ivy. He has since moved out of her Buckinghamshire mansion.

All, it seems, turned sour when both their careers took a nosedive. Since leaving the Spice Girls, Mel has had hardly any major projects, whilst the film Glitter starring Max and his co-star Mariah Carey took a battering with the critics and bombed big time.