It's just enough Spice

Spice Girls kick off tour without Ginger, but the dough keeps rolling in.

"We may look like a manufactured pop act, but people change their minds when they meet us." -- Sporty Spice

WEST PALM BEACH -- There are any number of things to obsess about this week as the world spins toward the end of the Second Millennium.

There's the Third World nuclear arms race.

There's the discovery by scientists that neutrinos have mass, which suggests that the universe itself is far more massive than imagined and will eventually stop expanding and collapse on itself.

And, of course, there's the metaphysical question, "What's up with the Spice Girls? How much juice is left in Girl Power?"

The Spice world is rife with rumors as the Spice Girls prepare to kick off their 40-date North American tour here, which eventually brings them to Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre July 11.

That would be Mel B, Mel C, Emma and Victoria -- a.k.a. Scary, Sporty, Baby and Posh. In the wake of the departure of Geri Halliwell (a.k.a. Ginger Spice) came rumors that another of the girls was about to jump ship. The most likely candidate: Posh, who reportedly hasn't signed the same multi-year contract terms as the others.

And what about Ginger? With reports swirling about that she's auditioning as an English "angel" in a big Hollywood movie remake of Charlie's Angels, there are questions about just how nasty her split with The Spice Girls actually was.

On one hand, the group is apparently pouring salt on the ground where she stood, like the Romans over the ruins of Carthage.

Her vocal tracks have reportedly been excised from recordings for an upcoming third Spice Girls album. And there's a report that a recently filmed Spice Girls' Cheetos commercial has been doctored, with that Cheetos cartoon cat digitally superimposed over Ms. Halliwell.

Last week, at a press conference before that big concert in Italy with Luciano Pavarotti -- is there anybody this side of RuPaul he hasn't duetted with? -- reporters were sternly advised that questions about Ginger were off-limits, which would indicate some residual nastiness.

On the other hand, Posh told the press back in England last week that, "if Geri walked through the door right now, we would all be like, 'Hello.' It would be like friends meeting up. We all love each other and we all love Geri."

So the point of tonight's open-air concert on a hot South Florida night is to show the world that things are cool. Certainly, the loss of Ginger -- while a disappointment to those of us who appreciate pulchritude (she being the, shall we say, Playboy-worthy Spice Girl) -- hasn't affected ticket sales.

As far as anyone can tell, no one in 40 cities has asked for his money back. "There were some calls from people who wanted to be reassured -- after the 'Ginger quits' news -- that the concert was still on," says Woody Graber, spokesman for the Coral Sky Amphitheatre where tonight's concert takes place.

Ditto, says Universal Concerts' Elliott Lefko of the July 11 Molson Amphitheatre date. "After all the trouble they went through getting tickets, who'd give them back?"

Nonetheless, more than a few people I know who take this stuff semi-seriously are dying to know how the girls sound minus Geri at tonight's show.

Cry no tears for Geri. Though she apparently gave up $5 million by quitting this tour, her reported buyout from the Spice Girls could be as high as $25 million.

Which gives you an idea of how much money is at stake overall. The Spice Girls' two albums of infectious dance pop -- Spice Girls and Spice World -- have sold 32 million copies between them, on the strength of monster hits Wannabe and the Latin-pop Spice Up Your Life.

And though grosses from their 40-date tour should top $50 million, it is calculatedly modest, part of a strategy by the Spice Girls' agents, William Morris. The Coral Sky is a venue near identical to our own Molson Amphitheatre, and most other shows are also in the 20,000-and-under seating range. Here, as in Toronto, tickets sold out in a heartbeat, priming the pump for a rumored second North American visit late in the year, including a possible SkyDome date.

What's up with the Spice Girls? Money and lots of it. It's the juice behind Girl Power, and on Spice World, you've got to figure it's at least as powerful a force as friendship.