Spice Girl's Holiday Plans: Party With 'Ruthless' Leader

Mel 'Scary Spice' Brown headed to Rwandan president's palace
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 11, 2013 10:41 AM CST
Spice Girl's Holiday Plans: Party With 'Ruthless' Leader
Melanie Brown, who was once known as Scary Spice of the Spice Girls, attends the opening night of a play Broadway on April 8, 2004, in New York.   (AP Photo/Jennifer Szymaszek)

The latest celebrity to party with a "bad guy"? Scary Spice. Melanie Brown, the Spice Girl also known as "Mel B," is spending Christmas with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his family, the Mirror reports. It seems Brown is friends with Kagame's grown kids, who invited her to the family palace. "They're adorable people," Brown says of his son and daughter. "I said to the kids, 'Do you want to go to Africa and see lions, tigers, and bears, or stay at home and watch TV all day?' It was a no-brainer."

Many wouldn't attach the word "adorable" to Kagame, who took office in 2000 and led the rebel force that ended the 1994 genocide in his country: He could now face a war crimes trial for allegedly arming M23, an insurgent group in the Congo accused of atrocities there. He's been called "ruthless" and "repressive" on the one hand, but the continent's "most dynamic and effective leader" on the other, and he has quite a few friends in the West, The Week reports. Click for more celebs who've partied with controversial leaders. (More Paul Kagame stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X