Victoria Beckham plans to be the nice judge when it comes to critiquing contestants on American Idol — but she expects to trade some not-so-nice barbs with prickly judge Simon Cowell.

“I like that fact that’s he’s honest. I think he’s very funny,” Beckham told Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS-FM radio show Friday. “He has a very tongue-in-cheek British sense of humor, which I have too. I’m looking forward to a bit of banter. I hope he does give me a little bit of a hard time. I love that. I feed off of that.”

Beckham, 35, says she doesn’t know Cowell well, but has one very pointed memory of him. “He is the only man in the music industry who turned down the Spice Girls and said we would never work,” Beckham said with a laugh.

Asked if she plans follow in the footsteps of Paula Abdul, who’s always been the most kind and nurturing judge on the show, Beckman says, “I want to be nice to people. I know how it feels to stand there and be judged … I don’t want to shatter anybody’s dream, but at the same time there’s nothing wrong with constructive criticism.”

As for whether she feels guilty replacing Abdul, she says, “I don’t. I’m a spiritual person and I believe that you get back whet you put out there, and I hope she does something that is bigger and better …. There’s something great for her around the corner, I’m sure.”

So how should prospective contestants aim to please Posh Spice? “What I’m looking for [in an Idol winner] is a great singer and somebody who has that star quality. It’s about the whole package.”

One other quality the fashion-savvy star would like to see: a contestant who possesses “natural style.”

Beckham is currently in Denver, where she’s set to participate in the first round of auditions for the upcoming season of American Idol.

Source, Bauer-Griffin