Victoria Beckham: Simon Cowell turned down Spice Girls

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Victoria Beckham has revealed that Simon Cowell had the chance to sign the Spice Girls — but let them go. The pair now sit alongside each other on the American Idol judges' panel, so there's nothing like dropping a few bombshells to crank up the pressure.

Turning up the heat: Simon got it wrong (left) and Posh outside the studios while recording American Idol (right)

Posh, having an early dig at her colleagues' costly error of judgment, said: "He is the only man in the music industry who turned down the Spice Girls — and said we would never work. I like that fact."

We'd like to remind Simon that the Spice Girls were the most successful girl band of all time, proving that his money-making radar must have been on the blink that day.

His arch-rival Simon Fuller snapped up the opportunity and went on to mastermind the girls' success and propel the likes of Victoria, 35, to global stardom.

The fashionista, and other half of Team Beckham, joined the American Idol panel this week after Paula Abdul left the series. Posh's inclusion is on a trial basis (so she might not want to rub Simon's nose in his previous mistake too much).

Of Abdul, Posh said: "I'm a spiritual person, and I believe that you get back what you put out there. I hope she does something that is bigger and better. There's something great for her around the corner, I'm sure."

Apparently that something around the corner is Dancing With The Stars, if reports in the US are to be believed.

We also hear that Vic has hired a phonetics coach to soften her British twang so American audiences can understand her better. Before her Idol debut earlier this week we're told she had a couple of one-on-one speech and drama lessons to help develop her pronunciation skills and her spontaneous facial expressions.

Our source told us: "Victoria knows she has a very thick British accent and is sometimes misunderstood in America. She wanted to come across the best she could on American Idol, so she took some private lessons on how to properly pronounce words and how to make appropriate facial expressions.

"Vic is famous for her pout but she herself admitted she wanted to shed that pout for the show to come across more human."

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