ALISON BOSHOFF: Why Geri Halliwell doesn't Wannabe a part of the Spice Girls' ... trends now

Their reunion at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party got everyone talking — Mel B even started teasing selling tickets for a Spice Girls tour, and bookies have been offering odds on them getting together for Glastonbury.

However, not only are the chances of a singing reunion as a five-piece nil — because Victoria simply hasn't got the time or inclination — I can reveal that plans to mark their 30th anniversary with a documentary have also fallen apart.

After the Netflix Beckham documentary, made by David's TV company, was such a success last year, the Spice Girls started to talk to the streamer about possibly making a similar all-access show about the group and their phenomenal success.

It was to feature lengthy interviews with all of the 'girls' and their families, talking about their experiences of fame and of life since their pop heyday.

The idea was to tie the documentary to the 30th anniversary of the group being founded in 1994.

However, although Victoria, Mel B, Mel C and Emma Bunton were all keen on the doc, after a number of meetings Geri Halliwell was still against the idea and they were not able to talk her round. This disagreement — certainly not the first in the group — created a little bit of frost between Ginger and the other girls.

And it may have been in Mel B's mind when she remarked about not knowing how old Geri was because she never saw her passport. They kept their distance at the party at Oswald's in Mayfair last weekend.

Some believe Geri wasn't keen on the scrutiny due to the looming scandal over husband Christian Horner, whose role at F1 team Red Bull appeared to be in peril after an employee alleged he had harassed her.

Horner was cleared in March after an inquiry, but the complainant has launched an appeal against that decision.

A source said: 'It might have been awkward for Geri to get out there and talk about Girl Power in these circumstances surrounding Christian but in truth even before it all came out she wasn't keen on revisiting those days. She just didn't want to go over all the fun, wild times that they had.'

No expense spared to create the wizard world of Wicked . . . in a Norfolk field!

In the streaming era, it takes a lot of clout to go big — I mean old school big — but director Jon M. Chu has pulled it off for his screen adaptation of the musical Wicked.

The story will be told over two blockbuster films, the first of which comes out this year, and Chu reveals that he went to great (and greatly expensive) lengths to create an Oz so spectacular it would cause 'that collective gasp' in the cinema.

He said: 'It means the world to have something like Wicked and say: 'We're going to spare no expense.' We planted nine million tulips. At first, they were like: 'Do you really need to plant nine million tulips? Just do a row that they're running along, and then we can CG the rest.' No!' He added: 'The giant train, the 1,600-ton train, you can definitely CG that — but we built it, and it runs.

'That's not to say we don't have CG. Obviously we are in partnership with some great companies that are building and extending and doing all this stuff. But it is really great to show the physical goods.'

The tulip fields in question were planted in Norfolk and much of the rest of the filming was done in Ivinghoe, Bucks.

Wicked stars Ariana Grande as Glinda, Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as Oz.

A silver heart for Sheridan's Valentine

Congratulations to Sheridan Smith who will be awarded the Variety Club Silver Heart Award 2024 for Outstanding Contribution as an Actress and Singer, on Sunday night.

The award honours her performance as Shirley Valentine and will be presented in a ceremony at the Londoner hotel. The historic awards — which named The Beatles 'Showbusiness personalities of 1963' — are a celebration of talent but also raise funds to change the lives of disabled and disadvantaged children in the UK.

It's some good news for Sheridan, who lost out on an Olivier award earlier this month and also suffered the recent embarrassment of an announcement that her current show, Opening Night, is to close two months earlier than planned after poor ticket sales.

Others honoured at the event this year include James Corden, Bradley Walsh, Kate Garraway, Kelly Hoppen and Abbey Clancy and Peter Crouch. Dame Joan Collins will receive an award for her outstanding contribution to global film and television.

The chairman of Variety, Jonathan Shalit, tells me: 'I am thrilled about the awards this year.' The event will be hosted by Amanda Holden.