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

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.)