"Geri's amazing. And she's got great tits."

Famous women all go crazy for Duncan James.
Jo Carnegie meets him - will she fall under his spell?

TODAY, HEAT AND BLUE'S Duncan James aren't seeing eye-to-eye. Duncan
is in a chatty mood and wants to talk about his change of direction.
"If I'm realistic, Blue isn't going to go on for much longer and
I've got to sort myself out," he explains. So far, things are
looking good.
Duncan is about to release his first solo single, the title track
from the new Andrew Lloyd Webber West End musical, Woman In White, no
less.
Given his ladykiller reputation, it seems fitting Duncan should be
doing what he calls a "lovey dovey" duet. Only a day
before, he was looking dashing in tight black trousers and hair
extensions for the single's video.
But while Duncan wants to talk music, we want to talk women. The
26-year-old went through a painful break-up with on-off girlfriend
Anya Lahiri quite recently, so we'll tread carefully. But then
there's his "Are they, aren't they?" friendship with Tara
P-T and the rumours that he's been up close and personal with a
certain Ms Halliwell. Duncan tells heat that he doesn't like people
seeing him as a showbizz shagger because "I've got a bit more
depth than that." Is that an invitation to dive in then? Duncan
seems like an amiable enough bloke, so we're sure he won't really
mind telling us if he's been lucky enough to run his hands over
Geri's new curves...

What happened with you and Anya? You said you were really in love.
We finished a few months ago but it's still quite fresh. We were on
and off for about three years. We got back together again a year ago
and at first it was wicked and amazing. But it got to the point where
I found it was really hard to be a boyfriend.

What do you mean?
In every sense of the word. When you're in a relationship it's a
two-sided thing, and when one person is putting in all the work and
the other person is never there...

And you were the one that was never there?
Yeah. Anya was at home waiting for her boyfriend to call, or she'd be
invited out to her best friend's birthday party in Camden and
everybody was there with their boyfriends and of course I would be
doing a gig in Germany. It got to the point where it was one or the
other. I said to her: "You deserve something so much more than I
can give you."

That's on a par with, "It's not you, it's me".
It sounds like a cliché, but it was true. Blue was coming to the
point where it could go one way or the other and I really had to
start establishing myself. I didn't have time to give her the serious
relationship she wanted, or deserved and...

At this point, Duncan's mobile phone goes off.
Sorry...

That's cool.
(Answers it.) Mum, I'm in an interview. What's the matter? Are you
all right? (Listens intently.) OK. Can I come back to you on that?
Cheers, bye.

Was that your mum? How's she doing?
Yeah, she's good. I'm just going to turn this thing off.

Back to Anya. When did you have that final talk to end it?
We went for a walk on Hampstead Heath. It was a lovely day and we sat
there for four hours. It was emotional, I was crying and she was
crying. But it was very amicable. I still have a lot of feelings for
the girl.

Did you have that awful moment where you say bye at the train station
and walk off in different directions?
(Quietly.) Yeah. Not at the station, but I got back in my car and she
went to get the Tube. I was a mess, I was walking back to my car in
floods of tears and everyone was looking at me. It was horrible.

Are you over her now?
I don't know how I feel. I'm pretty all over the place. But you have
your whole life ahead of you - if you're meant to be together you
will be one day. I really believe that.

OK. So lets talk about you and Tara.
This is boring. I mean, you know that there's nothing going on, right?

Isn't there?
Absolutely not.

So why do people keep linking you?
Because she's a celebrity, I'm a celebrity. It's a great story.

Didn't you go away on holiday to Greece recently?
Yeah. I'd split up with Anya and Tara had just broken up with her
boyfriend Jamie. She was in a really bad way. She said: "I
really need to get away, please, I'd love my friend to come with me
and just have a giggle." We hung out at the villa. It was fun.

Tara has said she fancies you. Is it a case of you not fancying her
back?
Tara and me, our relationship is like... (Thinks for a moment.) It's
different. I've got a lot of love for Tara...

Platonic love?
Completely.

Nothing has ever happened between you?
No, never.

Look me in the eye and tell me that.
(Looks heat right in the eye very convincingly.) Never, ever.

You've never even had a drunken snog?
OK, we've had a drunken snog.

So you have pulled her then!
When I first met Tara, she made it quite obvious she fancied me. I
liked her personality - I like eccentric, mad people. We were single,
had a few little snogs and got it out of our systems.

Just snogs?
We just had a mess about.

A mess about?
(Starts smiling.) I don't need to explain a mess about, you know what
a mess about is.

Does that mean sex?
(Laughs.) No, it doesn't mean sex. Just a bit of slap and tickle. And
now we've become friends.

Do you think that Tara still fancies you now?
No, I don't think she does. I don't think she has a lot of good
friends around her and I like to think I am a good friend to her. I
hope whenever she is upset she can phone me and vice versa. In crude
terms, that is more valuable to me than a fuck or a fling.

How about Geri? Ever since you presented Party In The Park together
in July, you've seemed very close...
(Stares down into his bacon and egg sandwich bashfully.) Geri's
great. I've got a... (Stops.) It's weird, I don't know what it is.

You sound besotted!
I've always liked her, since the Spice Girls. She always stood out,
she was like a pin-up to me.

So when you first met her, did she live up to your expectations?
When I first met her, she was going through her very thin stage and
we met her at cd:uk. I was really excited and said hello but she was
really cold and standoffish. I was gutted.

Why was she like that?
(Shrugs.) She might have been having a bad day. Who knows? But when
we were doing the Blue shoot in LA last year for Signed, Sealed,
Delivered and Geri came down. We were talking, and Lee came straight
up to her and said: "Oh Geri, Duncan had a crush on you. He used
to really fancy you." I went bright red.

What did Geri do?
She went: "Aah, that's really sweet," and gave me a big
hug, which made me go even redder. Then I went out for a meal with
her and her manager at the start of the year because we were talking
about writing some stuff together and I was like: "Oh my God,
I'm out with Geri."

Did you fancy her again?
I was still with Anya at that point, but yeah I thought she was sexy
and I liked her personality. We connected on a higher level.

What kind of level?
We just got on really well. We became friends and we used to phone
each other up and just chat about life and backgrounds and
spiritualism for two hours at a time. Then we got asked to do Party
In The Park together.

Have you pulled each other?
I'm not going to answer that.

That means yes then.
(A bit narky.) Why does that mean a yes? I don't want to talk about
that.

Because if you hadn't, you would have said no.
(Starts eating his sandwich.)

A snog? Come on...
(Mouth half full.) I'm not saying anything. She's a friend and it's
not fair.

But the way you're acting implies that there is something going on.
I'm not implying it, you are.

No I'm not. A heat mole saw you and Geri having dinner together in
Primrose Hill recently and there were lots of lingering looks and
very intimate eye contact.
Who was that? Were they on the table next to us?

Might have been...
(Slight note of alarm entering his voice.) Were they listening to our
conversation?

No, they weren't being that nosey, don't worry. They just said that
you looked very into each other.
(Coy.) We had a lot of things to talk about.

And apparently there's a canal by the restaurant and you went for a
walk down there afterwards...
(Puzzled silence.) What, were people spying on us?

Of course not.
We just had a little walk by the canal.

Sounds very romantic...
It was just a nice way to finish the meal.

Did you snog?
(Mock outrage.) No! Do you know what? She's got a lot of work on and
I'm busy as well. There's no way we could get together for a
relationship. Like I said, it's hard enough for me to have a
relationship with someone who's not in the industry, let alone
someone who works in the industry.

OK. One more question. Do you find it hard to take your eyes off
Geri's ample new cleavage?
(Laughs.) Yeah! I have a little joke with her about it. I say:
"Your tits are great." She just laughs.

Maybe that's what you were staring at over the table in the
restaurant.
(Naughty smile.) Maybe.