Victoria Beckham is the cover girl for the November issue of Marie Claire. Don’t hate me, but I think the cover shot is really cute. I don’t really think Victoria is the prettiest woman, but she’s a very interesting model, and she does have some fierceness to her. Posh also does a nice Q&A where she talks about everything… everything other than hookers (although I’m guessing this was done before the most recent hooker explosion). The full Marie Claire piece is here (and here‘s the full Q&A), and these are some highlights from the piece:

Kevin Sessums: Do you look back at “Posh Spice” and see her as another of your children at this point? Is she the daughter you haven’t had yet?
Victoria Beckham: I do look back and am grateful for what I achieved and for those girls in my life. But people are referring less and less to that time and it feels good. I think I’ve finally made the transition—I am now going into my sixth season as a designer—and all that feels like a hundred years ago. But the Spice Girls do seem to live on and on. Maybe that’s because we had a political message that still reverberates. Girl power. Strong women.

KS: Jennifer Lopez is one of your best friends and Simon Fuller, who is your business partner in your fashion business, is the creator of American Idol. Were you instrumental in getting JLo her new job as a judge this season?
VB: Simon did ask me about her, if I knew her. But, no, I had nothing to do with all that.

KS: You were great as a guest judge last season. I was hoping you would get the job because you not only could fill the female chair, but you could also supply some of that brittle Britishness that will be lacking now that Simon Cowell is gone. You’d have been a two-fer.
VB: It just not something I could have done. I have to travel to do my work. That job is a huge commitment.

KS: Is it true that when you auditioned for the Spice Girls that instead of doing a Madonna number or something by, say Cyndi Lauper back then, you performed “Mein Herr” from Cabaret?
VB: Entirely true. But does that surprise you? If nothing else, that alone proves I’m a gay man in a woman’s body.

KS: Well, you’ve got the fashion world pretty much covered then. Seriously, you’ve really hung in there and proved yourself as someone deserving to be considered a designer. Your status as a celebrity enabled you to get your name on a label, no doubt, but that same status can cause others to treat you as a kind of joke.
VB: I have always loved fashion since I was a kid and customized my school uniforms. This line has been a lifetime in the making. But more than anyone, I am aware of the preconceptions. I was a Spice Girl. I’m married to a footballer. I completely get it.
Marc Jacobs once told me something I’ve always lived by. I asked him who he considered his competition. ‘I don’t have competition,’ he told me. ‘My competition is myself from the season before.’ I’ll admit it: I’m a control freak. I am. If I’m going to do something I’m going to do it 110% or there’s no point in doing it at all, especially if the work takes me away from time with my husband and children. I’m finally just doing what I like. I put the clothes on and I look in the mirror and I think, would I wear this? I’m not worried about what’s in fashion, what’s not in fashion, what are the colors of the season. I go with my gut instinct because every time I haven’t it’s been a mistake. I can live with my own mistakes. I can’t live with anybody else’s.

KS: You mentioned your children. Brooklyn is 11 now. Romeo is 8. Cruz is 4. How has being a mother changed you?
VB: Hmm …. well, you know when you get a TV you get a manual? Well, there isn’t one for motherhood. I’m constantly trying to figure it out and questioning whether I’m doing it right. But I’m so proud my kids. They are very well-mannered. We’ve always been very strict with the kids. That’s the way David and myself were brought up. But they’re free spirits as well. They laugh. They joke. They have fantastic personalities. I love hanging out with them. The other day we got up early to have breakfast and I was teaching them about American money. I had Post-Its on all the breakfast cereal. On the bread. On the milk. I got a box of fake money from Toys’R’Us. ‘All right,’ I told them at 6 a.m. ‘We’re going to learn about American money. I’m going to make you buy your breakfast.’ I hand them all a bit of the money. They were all just waking up and going, ‘Mum, we just want our Coco Puffs.’ And I’m going, ‘Coco Puffs! Cost one dollar twenty!’

KS: And the marriage is still strong?
VB: We are still so close, David and I. We were at a party the other day at my mum’s house and I was sitting on his lap. We’re very affectionate. And I looked at him and thought after being married for 11 years! We were the only couple who were even near each other at that party. We’re soul mates.

KS: What does David want to do when he retires from soccer?
VB: He’s a good businessman. Got a good brain on his shoulders. He’s a phenomenally good photographer. Nobody really knows that about him. There’s a very interesting plan for him in the future that we’re mapping out. But he’s got a few more good years in him as a soccer player.

KS: I read on the British Vogue website that he’s going to be designing menswear for your label.
VB: That’s rubbish. I don’t know where that came from. But you’ve read all the rumors about me. Some people aren’t satisfied that I’m a gay man in a woman’s body and swear that I’m secretly a real boy. Let’s clear that one up. I’m a real woman. Okay? Before I became famous I used to think there’s no smoke without fire. But believe me, there can be a fire without smoke.

KS: And you’ve never looked more beautiful. How old are you now?
VB: Thirty-six.

KS: Any secrets to looking this good? Any plastic surgeon numbers you’d like to share?
VB: I take care of myself. I work out every day. I eat healthy. But I like to have fun too. I’m not going to say no to a glass of wine, let’s put it that way. But God! People in this business are obsessed with youth. I can understand it when you constantly see pictures of yourself in the press. But I do seem to be the only person I know who is getting older. Most famous people get younger and younger. I sometimes ask myself that question: ‘How come I’m the only person who’s getting older?’ But I’m cool with that. I read once that elegance is a privilege of age. I thought, that’s so true. You get more comfortable with yourself as you get older.

Posh on being in America: “There are rumors that we want to move back to the U.K., but we’re so happy in America I actually can’t see us ever leaving … People ask me how long it took to adapt. Twenty minutes. I’m a very driven, ambitious, positive person. But I’m a spiritual person as well. I believe in creative visualization. So for me to go to America — which I find such a positive place — well, I took to it like a duck to water. In England, David and I are big fish in a small pond. But in L.A., we are tiny, tiny, tiny fish in a big pond. I mean, let’s be honest about it. When you’ve got Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes living down the street as your neighbors, who gives a sh-t about Victoria and David? Bottom line: I can relax in L.A. I think I’m the only person in that town who doesn’t want to act. I was an OK singer. I was an OK dancer. But acting? Never could do it.”

Posh on Xenu: “We aren’t Scientologists,” she says. “We really don’t know very much about it. I mean, Tom [Cruise] and Katie [Holmes] — they’ve mentioned it to us. But, no, they didn’t try to hook us and reel us in. It never really crops up. I’m very close to Katie, but with us, it’s all about girl talk … Katie is so talented and such an incredible mother, spinning plates like all us working mums do.”

[From Marie Claire]

In additional excerpts, Posh even discusses David’s high-pitched voice, saying: “I don’t really notice it.” And then she goes off on how hot her husband is: “I just think he’s so goddamn perfect that people have to find something wrong with him…[the other day]… He was sitting at the end of the bed, and he had no clothes on whatsoever. I was getting out of the shower, and I just stood there looking at him. He was all tan. Has all those tattoos, which I love. Hadn’t done his hair. He just naturally looks good all the time. He never looks like s–t in the morning. Never… So he’s sitting there sending his e-mails, all ripped. Not an ounce of fat on him. And I thought, you done good, girl. I sure wasn’t thinking of his high-pitched voice.” Damn, girl. We get it, Victoria! You still love to bone your hot husband! (As do many other women.)

Photos courtesy of Marie Claire.