Spice Girls album to be at Victoria’s Secret

New York – Wanna be the first to score a copy of the Spice Girls greatest-hits album? You’ll have to go through Victoria’s Secret to get it.

The newly reunited British girl group’s CD will be available starting Nov. 13 at Victoria’s Secret stores and on the company’s Web site in the U.S., Capitol Music Group said.

The “Spice Girls: Greatest Hits” features 13 hits, including “Wannabe” and “Spice up Your Life,” and two new songs, “Voodoo” and the upcoming single “Headlines (Friendship Never Ends).”

Capitol said the disc will be available nationwide Jan. 15.

The original Girl Power group of the 1990s will also appear at the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show, set to air Dec. 4 on CBS.

The Spice Girls were one of the biggest acts of the ’90s with more than 55 million records sold. The quintet, which broke up in 2001, announced they had reunited at a news conference in London in late June.

Their reunion tour opens Dec. 2 in Vancouver, Canada. Other confirmed dates: San Jose, Calif., Dec. 4; Los Angeles, Dec. 5 and Dec. 7; and Las Vegas, Dec. 8-9.

Other North American tour dates are being rearranged, Capitol Music said, due to the high demand for tickets.

Winfrey opens up about thyroid condition

New York – Oprah Winfrey is going public about the thyroid condition that slowed down her metabolism and caused her to gain 20 pounds.

Winfrey, 53, was feeling incredibly sluggish by the time her talk show wrapped up its season in May. She eventually discovered the problem: an out-of-balance thyroid.

“My body was turning on me,” she says in the October issue of O, the Oprah magazine. “First hyperthyroidism, which sped up my metabolism and left me unable to sleep for days. (Most people lose weight. I didn’t.)”

“Then hypothyroidism, which slowed down my metabolism and made me want to sleep all the time. (Most people gain weight. I did! Twenty pounds!)”

Hyperthyroidism can also cause a fast heartbeat, among other symptoms; hypothyroidism, the opposite condition, can result in fatigue and weakness.

Winfrey, exhausted and stressed, took a monthlong break in Hawaii to regain her health.

Winfrey also discussed her thyroid condition on Tuesday’s “Oprah” show, saying she “wanted so many other women who are going through the same thing to check on yourself and recognize that … it’s an issue we all share in common.”

Vegas poker game led to marriage

New York – Pamela Anderson says she and Rick Salomon took their 17-year friendship to the next level during a poker game.

“I left the table and Errol (Lyon, Anderson’s driver) played in my place,” the 40-year-old ex-“Baywatch” star tells OK! magazine. “I came back to find myself $250,000 in the hole to Rick!”

So Salomon – best known for making a sex tape with ex-girlfriend Paris Hilton – struck a flirty deal.

“Rick, being the gentleman, said he would wipe my debt if I gave him a kiss, so I have to thank Vegas for our relationship switching gears!” Anderson says in the magazine’s latest issue, on newsstands today. “It evolved into spending every day – and then nights – together.”

Salomon weighs in, telling OK!: “I’ve been plotting and scheming for the past 15 years, and I finally got the girl.”

The couple tied the knot Oct. 6 in a villa at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, squeezing in their vows between Anderson’s performances as an assistant in Hans Klok’s magic show at a nearby casino.

It was the third marriage for both Anderson and Salomon. The couple met when she was dating one of Salomon’s friends.

Anderson was previously wed to Kid Rock and Tommy Lee. Salomon’s ex-wives are actresses Shannen Doherty and E.G. Daily.

‘Sopranos’ actor’s statements dropped

New York – Key statements that Lillo Brancato Jr. made to police will not be used against him in his upcoming trial in the fatal shooting of an off-duty police officer.

Prosecutors agreed not to introduce the statements because Brancato, known for playing an aspiring mobster in HBO’s “The Sopranos,” was questioned without his attorney, Assistant District Attorney Theresa Gottlieb said Tuesday.

The statements were made shortly after the December 2005 shooting of Officer Daniel Enchautegui. Brancato is alleged to have told investigators co-defendant Steven Armento shot the officer, though Brancato urged him not to.

“You think I’m in a lot of trouble?” the actor allegedly asked after telling officers he didn’t have a gun.

Prosecutors say an off-duty Enchautegui confronted Brancato and Armento while they were breaking into a Bronx apartment in search of prescription drugs. Armento is accused of firing the fatal shot.

Brancato told a TV interviewer in a February jail interview that he “was in no way responsible for the death of that police officer,” and his attorney, Joseph Tacopina, said Tuesday he was “optimistic” about the case.

“My client didn’t have a gun, and that’s the crux of the case,” Tacopina said.