Spice Girls meet princes at movie premiere December 16, 1997
Web posted at: 12:17 a.m. EST (0517 GMT)
LONDON (CNN) -- British royalty -- and British pop royalty -- were at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square Monday for the premiere of the Spice Girls' latest effort.
The fabulous five, wearing identical pinstriped gangster outfits, met privately with Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 13, who took their friends to the world premiere of the group's first movie, "Spice World."
Harry, famously grinning, actually met the Spice Girls earlier on a trip to South Africa, but it was a first for William.
British rocker Bob Geldof, who makes a five-second cameo appearance in the film, arrived at the premiere with two of his daughters, Peaches, 8, and Pixie, 7.
The movie -- which also features Jennifer Saunders, Roger Moore, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Bob Hoskins, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry -- is the story of five days in the hectic lives of the band members, who do battle with their demanding manager, played by Richard E. Grant, while dodging nosy news crews and photographers.
"They are playing who they are. They are not playing characters so they are not acting as such," Grant said. "They are just who they are, so they do that very energetically and feistily."
The film coincides with the release of the band's latest single from its "Spiceworld" album, "Too Much."
The Spice Girls sat with the princes during the premiere and then went to a party in their honor at the Waldorf Hotel.
"Harry told us, 'I'm going to tell all my friends to come to see it,' so that was really nice," said Emma Bunton, better known as Baby Spice.
The young princes' father, Prince Charles, also met the girls, greeting them in the customary line-up. Baby Spice asked him, cheekily, "Have you bought the new single? It's out today."
When he replied that he had not, they looked shocked.
Reuters contributed to this report.