SKY INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE:
Bye Bye Baby
Think you know her? Then think again. Emma Bunton on porn, perverts and polaroids.

Baby Spice goes down on Mel C. She peers lustily down Sporty Spice's bra while sensuously skimming her tongue around her lips. What follows is a steamy bout of girl-on-girl action -the sort of commonor-garden porn guaranteed to spice up yer wife.

"Look at it! No, LOOK AT THAT!" Emma Bunton leans forward for a closer view and starts gasping excitedly. She's flicking through Sky- the Melinda Messenger issue - and in it is our piece about the aforementioned Vice Girls, the Fantasy Channel's latest looky-likey recruits.

"I saw this! I did! I read this," Emma giggles, "with my mum!"

She shakes her head, grinning as she leans forward for a closer inspection. Posh Vice, we notice, has floppy mammaries.

The girls don't look much like you, do they? "No," she says sadly. "Mind you, that one there (points at Baby Vice)... Ha. Er. That's a bit close. That looks like me. Ohhh." A giggle.

"Actually I'd heard about this before and apparently..." She pauses, quite proudly. "I'm really dirty in it. I'm the really dirty Vice Girl."

So then, meet Baby Spice. She looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Legend has it that she spends her days sucking lollipops and her evenings playing wistfully on her swing. The person she'd most like to see in a pair of Speedos is Trevor McDonald (according to the official Spice mag) and, as a personal trainer, she'd like to hire Delia Smith. Ever get the feeling you're being taken for a ride?

When we first meet Emma, in a Manchester studio, she's demonstrating very little babyness. Her Botticelli figure stitched into a fitted dog's-tooth pedal- pusher suit, she totters in on Gucci shoes, offering a confident hand and then grimaces a little. She has period pain ("I've been up all night doubled over," she sighs) and we suspect she'd rather not be facing a cover shoot.

She seems a little anxious about the pics; but then this is her first time solo on the cover of an adult magazine. This was her idea. Today Emma will be throwing out the nappies. Baby Spice is growing up.

There is little to remind us that we are in the presence of one of the world's biggest stars. Clueettes? Maybe. Like the time she says, "Where are my crisps?" and fishes through the catering box to pull out a packet of Walkers with her picture on. (She literally meant her crisps.) Or the scream that comes from the dressing room when Emma's press officer shows her today's Sun (Leonardo Di'Caprio is trying to seduce her, it seems) and the accompanying page seven cartoon of Em and Leo as Romeo and Juliet.

On the whole, however, Emma keeps herself to herself and leaves four hours later, looking a little less hassled, a little more tired.

A week later, reclining on a leather sofa backstage at Wembley, an entirely different Emma Bunton is playing hostess. She is zipped into a snow-coloured catsuit, looking naturally beautiful and a lot more relaxed than previously. She is ready for this now. She is up for having a very candid conversation. Emma Bunton wants to talk about being a grown-up. We'll cover sex, pornography, obsessives, men and fast cars. When we cut through the crap we'll see that Emma Bunton is more than all right - a pub mate, a woman, a laugh. So even if you're not a fan of lollipop Lolitas, don't chuck the Baby out with the bath water just yet.

Emma, why did you want to pose for Sky?

I like it. I think, also, because it's a little bit different to what I'm about. I loved the stuff you did with Melinda and Denise. I thought the shots were a little bit different and quite racy. (Grins) And, yeah, I wanted to show another side to me but I didn't want to go too far because at the end of the day I am who I am.

Would you ever pose naked?

Erm, no, I don't think so. And that's not because I think there's anything wrong with it, it's because I'm shy. If people want to do it that's great. Just for me, it's something... I'm quite a shy person like that so I wouldn't get all my kit off (cackles).

So the nude pictures stay at home?

Yes they do. With my Polaroid camera! (Laughs.)

You're 22 now. How hard is it to act sexy and be Baby Spice?

The Baby Spice thing is just because I am the youngest in the group. Anyway, for me, very cute can be sexy. I think a lot of men find that attractive as well. My sexiness is about being very subtle. I prefer the prettier sort of sexy, rather than tits out all over the place. If I put on a little black dress and stilettos, I might also put my pigtails in, so it's not so much, "Hey I'm sexy." It gives it a bit of an edge, y'know?

Have you got it in you to be a bit of a vixen, though - get drunk and go up to a bloke at a party?

I miiiight do (winks). Everyone's got different sides to them. Me, I get away 'with murder. Absolute murder... I like to keep things to myself sometimes. I don't go to strip clubs and I don't think I would watch a porn video but then again I love men. Actually' thinking about it, I've probably sat down and watched a porno and just not got off on it. Not my cup of tea.

You're driving an XK8 Jag on this tour. We've heard you're a bit of a speed queen on the roads.

Ha! Where did you hear that? Well, it's true. I do like my cars and I like taking my mates out. I'm a proper gel's gel. If it's down to going out with a bloke for dinner or going out with my mates, I'll probably get my mates in the car. Love it!

There seem to be a lot of boys in Finchley going around now saying, "Baby Spice? Yeah 'ad her"

Yeah. I get a lot of that. My dad went out and bumped into some bloke who told him that I was his daughter. My dad was speechless. Quite weird. My brother's had it as well where someone's said to him, "Yeah, my sister's Emma from the Spice Girls." I find it weird that people want to be connected to me.

What's the biggest misconception people have of you?

I think because I'm supposed to be the cute baby one, people look at me and think, "No way. She must be a real bitch. " Obviously there's a bitch in everybody but I'm not the way people imagine me to be. For some reason, because they see this cute thing they just think, "She must be a real cow underneath it all." Mad.

Since you split up with your ex a few years ago there's been nothing much about your love life In the papers.

Yeah, well y'know why? It's because I haven't really had any relationships for a couple of years. My ex... well that was quite a hard time for me because I've had two or three long relationships, and my last one was for four years and he actually sold a story on me at the end of it. It really affected me. I trusted him and he did that to me. I thought to myself, "Well I haven't been on my own for a while," so I decided to go out and enjoy myself. I'm not into relationships at the moment.

Do you miss the sex?

Yeah. Sometimes I think about it. But it's not the main thing for me at the moment, I'm just having a good time. I think because I had been in relationships for such a longtime, I just thought, "What have I been doing for the last God knows how long? There's plenty of time for all that!"

What kind of bloke floats your boat?

I go for real lads, which is probably why I've had trouble. Y'know, they don't care about their hair or take ages getting ready. I go for quite dark men too, olive skin. I quite like men in trackies and trainers. I don't like big men but I like a cute body (makes eyes). I've had my eye on Leonardo Di'Caprio, as you know, but I think he's a bit boy- y for me.

We've had letters at Sky detailing fantasies blokes have about having sex with you while holding on to your pigtails.

I've heard this before. I tell you what, I was reading a whole pile of mail recently and the letters were getting filthier and filthier. There was one - now, I've got quite a grabbable arse, I wouldn't say big, I'd say grabbable - and this bloke kept going on about my arse all the time, saying that all his friends go out partying and he stays in and, like, plays with himself over me in magazines. I was wetting myself! As I was going through the letter I suddenly held a page up and went, "Oh my God. I wonder what he's done on this page?" He was also saying that he used to write to Princess Di and he was really upset when she died. It was getting freakier and freakier...

We've heard that when people send you chocolates you have to have them tested in case they've done stuff to them.

Yeah, well, that happens to a lot of our stuff. If we get sent sweets I'm the first one to start chewing them but we do have to have them tested because they say they can inject thern with stuff and... urgh. Yeah. You do have to be careful.

Being careful wasn't enough to protect Emma from a hot-pot of rumours which circulated the industry last year when the Spice Girls ditched their manager, Simon Fuller. Emma, so the story went, had been having a full-blown sordid affair with Fuller, and when the other Spices found out, he was "removed."

So, did you or did you not have an affair with Simon Fuller, Emma?

I did NOT have an affair with Simon Fuller. Really. No.

Any idea where those rumours came from?

I haven't got a clue. At one point I remember sitting down and reading that and thinking, "I really don't know where people get these stories from." You start to realise how much journalists can make up, which is scary because you think, "They could say any thing they wanted about me." Sometimes there'll be a week of lies, and you'll think, "Well I could throw it back and say, 'No, no, no!'" but I can't do that every day. Now I just think, "Forget it. I'm not going to bother."

So the Spice Girls' break-up with Fuller had nothing to do with you on a personal level?

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all.

Can you tell me anything about why it happened?

Legally, no.

When it did happen it was quickly followed by a media backlash. Did it hurt you, after the Brits, when the tabloids were saying you were finished?

Ugh. No. I think obviously when a band has this amount of success so quickly, and makes quite a big impression, even in America, it's something for the press to discuss. Any story is a story. Like with the All Saints thing. We always say it's like the Oasis/Blur thing. I mean, we're big fans of All Saints. I went to school with two of them! It's just a media thing. They think, "We've got two girl bands, they must hate each other." You'd be shocked at how well we get on because obviously we're all in the same situation and it's really nice for us to sit down and have a laugh.

How long do you think the Spice Girls have got?

Do y'know what? Fundamentally we're about friendship and we'll always have that. Musically we've got so much that we still want to do, we never stop dreaming. At the end of the day, if someone wanted to do their own thing, we'd still be the Spice Girls but we'd be doing our own little things and we'd support each other completely because that's what we're about. But there's so much more coming from the Spice Girls. Whether you like it or not. Ha! We've got loads up our sleeves...