Vienna:

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell will be the celebrity invitee at Vienna’s Opera Ball next month, Austrian property tycoon Richard Lugner announced. If Halliwell accepts the invitation she will follow in the footsteps of film stars Andie McDowell, who graced Lugner’s lodge at the State Opera last year, Pamela Anderson and Jacqueline Bisset. Lugner has been inviting stars to the high-profile event in the Austrian social calender since 1992 and told journalists he chose Halliwell because “we like her, she is curvaceous, my wife thinks she has a beautiful bosom.” He said it was not sure yet she would accept, adding: “The woman is difficult.” The Opera Ball is due to take place on February 3 despite a proposal by the head of Austria’s Socialist Party, Alfred Gusenbauer, that the event be cancelled and those who have bought tickets agree their money be used to aid victims of the Asian tsunami. — AFP