Friday, September 1, 2000
Posh has viral meningitis
LONDON (Reuters) -- Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, "Posh Spice," who cancelled television appearances in Germany this week due to headaches, is suffering from viral meningitis, a spokeswoman said Friday.
The pop singer had been ill for the past few days but her condition was being "blown out of all proportion" by the media, the spokeswoman said.
"The doctors suspect that it's viral meningitis," she said.
"She's absolutely exhausted and she's been told to rest and that's it. She's at home at her mum's lying on the sofa."
Meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes of the brain or spinal cord, is caused by either a viral or bacterial infection.
The viral variety tends to be accompanied by headaches and vomiting but, unlike bacterial meningitis, is not potentially deadly and usually runs its course without treatment.
Britain's Mirror newspaper reported Friday that Posh Spice flew home by private jet after heeding a doctor's advice to cancel her German appearances.
The tabloid quoted an unidentified friend of Beckham as saying she had suffered a severe migraine headache while filming at a studio in Cologne Wednesday evening.
The health scare in Germany came on the same day as the singer and her husband, English soccer star David Beckham, dropped a legal bid to block a book based on personal details revealed by former bodyguard Mark Niblett.
"She is under such stress," the friend told the Mirror. "As well as the legal action, she has had endless promotions to do and it has all taken its toll on her. As for Niblett, she feels sick and betrayed by what the man has done to her."
Posh and Becks -- the insider's look at the celebrity couple penned by Andrew Morton, author of a bestseller on the late Diana, Princess of Wales -- will hit bookstores in October.
After first seeking a total ban, the couple -- who have their own book coming out in the autumn -- sought to have 2,500 words excised from the final 60,000-word draft of Morton's book.
On Wednesday, after two days of negotiations, the Beckhams' lawyer said they settled the matter with Michael O'Mara Books. Details were not disclosed.
O'Mara hailed the outcome as a "complete victory" and said several hundred "relatively trivial" words had been trimmed.
The publisher said his side argued the Beckhams often disclosed their private lives to the media and that the book about them was in the public interest.
-- AllPop
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