Spice Girl hits Eddie Murphy with paternity suit

LOS ANGELES, Aug 2 (Reuters) Spice Girl singer Melanie Brown filed a paternity suit against actor Eddie Murphy asking for child support for her 3-month-old daughter.

Gloria Allred, the lawyer for the ''Scary Spice'' member of the 1990s British girl band, said the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. It seeks to legally establish paternity and asks for unspecified child support.

A DNA test in June confirmed that Murphy, 46, is the father of Brown's baby, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, who was born in April.

The couple dated last year and Brown, 32, listed Murphy as the father on the child's birth certificate. But the ''Beverly Hills Cop'' and ''Dreamgirls'' star has never publicly acknowledged paternity.

Celebrity magazines reported this week that Murphy had become engaged to his girlfriend of 10 months, Tracey Edmonds. Murphy has five children from his first marriage to Nicole Mitchell, which ended in divorce in April 2006.

Murphy's spokesman Arnold Robinson declined to comment on the paternity lawsuit or his reported engagement.

The Spice Girls announced in June they would be reuniting for a world tour starting in December.

REUTERS