She's furious with Eddie Murphy, hates other celebs who don't do anything for charity - and heaven help her daughter if she asks for sweets. No, Mel B hasn't mellowed with age.
Mel B is dressed in unforgiving white cotton separates that show her to be a cellulite-free zone. Her small, determined face is shaded by Bambi eyelashes. The look may be buffed Californian casual, but her voice is, reassuringly, pure Leeds.
She races purposefully through her list of forthcoming projects, ticking them off on slim fingers: everything from starring in a 'tasteful' burlesque show, where she keeps her bra on throughout, to whipping butts into shape with her new exercise DVD.
Through the hotel windows, a wide sweep of Hollywood shimmers.
Mel continues to live up to her Scary Spice moniker, revealing she's strict with daughter Phoenix
She has lived in Los Angeles for nearly six years, and is now settled with her second husband, film producer Stephen Belafonte, and their combined brood of three children. Only a few weeks ago, they renewed their wedding vows in Egypt, barely a year after they married.
When she talks about Stephen, Mel's brisk, guarded style softens. She obviously still relishes the thrill of describing him as 'my husband'. 'We clicked, completely,' she says. 'It's lovely in every way spending time with him. He understands me inside out; he's my best friend. We're exactly the same age, to the month, and we have so many things, like music, in common. And he's a fantastic cook. What more could I ask for?'
Family outing: Melanie with her husband Stephen Belafonte and her children Phoenix and Angel yesterday at The Grove in Los Angeles
Stephen proposed two months after Angel was born, but their courtship was not quite the whirlwind it seems. The couple have been friends since the end of Mel's brief first marriage to dancer Jimmy Gulzar, the father of nine-year-old Phoenix.
Mel's mother, Andrea, warned her that her wedding to Jimmy was a mistake, so has Stephen passed the Andrea test? After all, it is a matter of public record that, in 2003, he was convicted of assault on his common-law wife, bikini model Nicole Contreras, who is the mother of his four-year-old daughter, Giselle. After taking anger management classes, he is apparently a reformed character.
Caring for baby: Stephen looks after Angel as the family enjoy lunchI didn't go to my mum for approval,' she says, and then pauses. 'He passed my test. You can tell a lot about a man by the way he interacts with his kids, and I love that Stephen is a really good hands-on father to Giselle. She lives with her mum, but he sees a lot of her.'
Likewise, Phoenix has regular contact with her father. Jimmy and Mel are now on 'civil' terms and, because he also lives in Los Angeles, his daughter is able to stay with him every other weekend. But was it tricky talking to Phoenix about her having a stepfather?
'If anything, she was the one who saw Stephen and me spending a lot of time together and said, "Are you two going to get married?" It's worked out so well, because, age-wise, Giselle fits right between Angel and Phoenix.
Mel with Stephen Belafonte earlier this year
'Even though she lives with her mum, we do a lot of family things together. I love kids and I'd definitely like more. Other people might think our family life is chaotic, but it's not to me - I don't get fazed by the noise and the shouting. To me, that's happiness.'
Mel, 33, who left home at 14 and girl-powered her way to a fortune, works hard to ensure her daughters don't take privilege for granted. Treats such as chocolate are rationed, and she doesn't give in to tantrums.
Her old 'Scary' tag was manufactured by a teen magazine when the Spice Girls had just made it big, but she is certainly Stern Spice.
'If Phoenix starts crying because she wants something, I say, "What's the matter? Are you hungry? In pain? No? Well, stop right now because there are a lot of children in the world worse off than you." And the good thing is, I can give her a reality check by actually coming out with the facts, which I know now because I support a few charities like Oxfam.'
Mel B as the face and body of Ultimo lingerie
At this point, she leans forward and fixes me with a beady stare, and I now understand what it's like for Phoenix when she asks her mum for a sweet and Mel tells her she can't have one until Friday and, by the way, does she realise that 30,000 people die every day because they don't have access to clean drinking water?
'Do you know what?' she says. 'I think it's really disgusting when a celebrity isn't doing something for charity. It feels so good, and it's so easy - when you've got the money and you've got the exposure - to give something back.'
This earnest side of her is a surprise if your image of Mel was formed during the phase when she pinched Prince Charles's bottom at the Prince's Trust charity concert in 1997, but she has been a committed donor to good causes since Phoenix was born.
She recently put her property where her mouth is by auctioning off the entire contents from her former Buckinghamshire manor house, down to her toaster and tiger-print rugs, to raise funds for the children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent.
When I sold the house, everything went into storage. Then Stephen asked me what I was going to do with it all. We came up with this plan, and I feel really proud we made it work.
The older you get, the more you realise that, if people are giving you something, you have a responsibility to do something in return, by lending your time and name and support.'
She seems to have an inexhaustible fund of energy and ideas. After narrowly missing first place on last year's Dancing With The Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing, she is thinking about opening her own dance studio in London, and may even teach classes herself, and she has made a fitness DVD, which advocates regular workouts and consumption of a high-protein turkey dish of her own creation called 'army slop'.
Next year, she will appear as Peep Diva, the lead role in a saucy, but definitely not trashy, burlesque show in Las Vegas. She is the face and stupendous body of Ultimo lingerie and there is a TV series in the pipeline, possibly to tie in with the launch of her splashy Catty Couture leopard-print clothes.
She is also developing a children's show and, once that's out of the way, she quite fancies writing a sex book. Mel gives a naughty smile. 'I'm very open and direct, and not embarrassed by anything, so I think I'd be good at it. There's always something else to do and I have to rein myself back, because I become totally obsessed about the latest thing.
Mel on US TV show Dancing with the Stars with her professional partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy
I don't believe in sitting around worrying or feeling sorry for myself,' she says. 'What's the point? I'm up and dealing with the next thing. There's no excuse for not trying, in my opinion.
'People say things like, "You've been through the mill with relationships", like it's all doom and gloom, and I think, "No I haven't." Whatever's written about me in the newspapers is from the outside. I'm not suffering because, as far as I'm concerned, nothing's gone wrong. I don't think it's possible for me to be depressed. It's a waste of bloody energy. I'd rather run around the garden with my kids than mope.'
Her move to America was partly to take time out after the frenetic Spice Girls years, and partly to escape press attention. She soon settled into 'holiday mode' in the Californian climate and, for two years, she concentrated on domestic life, then she gradually eased herself back into work with a part in the Broadway musical Rent, as well as television appearances.
She has become one of those shrewd all-singing, all-dancing personalities. And competing in Dancing With The Stars, where she was indisputably the best celebrity hoofer of the series, raised her profile again. 'That's what I love about America, that you can have a go at different things and people accept it as normal.
'I like to feel I'm constantly bettering myself. That's why I'm in therapy. It's a way to check in and make sure everything's functioning all right - like getting your car serviced. I don't have pressing problems, but I like to go, "Okay, this is where I'm heading. Can you help me with the journey?" Everyone should have a nice therapist they can talk to once in a while.
'I'd grown up seeing my parents work so hard, getting stressed-out and miserable, so, when I was 18, I made a promise to myself that I would only do positive, fun things, or what's the point? And now I'm really lucky to be in a position to be able to do that.'
Mel's 'regret nothing' philosophy can make her seem invulnerable, but she reveals an unexpected need for peace, to the extent that when she was pregnant with Angel, she used to spend every other weekend at a Mexican hippy camp where there was no electricity or running water. 'I really enjoyed the tranquillity and time to reflect on life. Sometimes, I think that when the kids are grown up, I'll go and live in a hut somewhere.'
It is rather surprising that Mel B, who has so many houses in Los Angeles that she prefers to say she has 'a lot' rather than name a figure, is satisfied with a hut? 'Well,' she concedes. 'Until the next project.'
