Spice Channel

Like the BBC's Top of the Pops and MTV's Unplugged, MuchMusic's Intimate and Interactive has become a promotional must on the list of any notable recording artist passing through Toronto.

And even The Spice Girls are no exception.

Viewers of the Much's networks around the globe watched yesterday as Scary showed off new tattoos, Sporty slipped a puck through Master T's five-hole, Baby tap-danced in Prada sandals and Posh displayed a gabillion- karat engagement ring.

For more than an hour the bubblegum pop stars dished in-studio with VJ Master T and fielded questions from the audience via e-mail, phone, fax and video. (The Girls seemed a little puzzled to hear about a Speaker's Corner that wasn't in Hyde Park.)

"We still talk, we're still friends," Posh Spice Victoria explained as fans wasted no time in asking if they "still hang out" with Departed Spice, Gerri Halliwell.

"Everybody wants to hear some nitty gritty, but there really wasn't any," she said of the Spice split.

The girl talk covered everything from shoes (mainly Buffalo brand) to relationships (Sporty advised e-mail writer Erica to "go with the flow; don't force anything" if she wanted Christian back) to dream dates.

For the record? Baby (Emma) would choose Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon, Sporty (Mel C.) opted for Matt Leblanc's sense of humor, Scary (Mel B.) settled on Denzel Washington and Posh simply stated "I have my dream date, haven't I?"

Victoria's soccer star fiance, David Beckham, was in attendance but fled the camera's view.

The Spice Girls munched candy while revealing that a third album would be recorded after their current 40-city North American tour, and a sequel to their Spice World movie isn't out of the question.

Baby revealed that photographers have resorted to erecting ladders beside her home, and Scary shyly discussed being caught on a French beach with her fiance hanging off her and little else.

"That's a small price to pay for the things a Spice Girl gets to do," she surmised of the constant attention.

The superstars began the 90-minute event by bursting into the Toronto studio with Wannabe. The foursome put on a seamless live performance, hampered by a subdued studio audience. Few of the invited VIPs (station execs' nieces and nephews, no doubt) were either old enough or fanatical enough to appreciate having the hottest band in the world two feet away.

Perhaps MuchMusic should have invited some of the devoted outside who had camped since Friday to catch a glimpse.

Wisely, The Spice Girls ignored Master T's directions to stay put and ventured outside often. In fact, the Girls pretty much had the run of the show and nobody was in a position to argue.

It may not have been Girl Power, specifically, but it certainly was Power.