GERI Halliwell is being paid £500,000 by a playboy to be his date at a posh ball.

Billionaire Dickie Lugner, 72, has coughed up the whopping fee to have the former Spice Girl’s company at Austria’s world-famous Opera Ball in Vienna.

Dickie — whose previous dates include the Duchess of York, Pamela Anderson, Sophia Loren and Grace Jones — said last night: “I chose Geri because of her wonderful smile.”