Emin wants to spend more time in Scotland
There was quite a crush of reporters and photographers at the press view of the new 20 retrospective of Tracey Emin's work at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art today. As is usual at these events, there was some period of standing around waiting, but once she was ready, Ms Emin, very tanned, was in interesting and articulate mood. She was particularly adamant that the snappers snapped her in one room, and the reporters asked questions in an other, but was otherwise quite charming. The talk at her question and answer session was even moving, especially when she described her two bouts of destroying her own work: in 1988 and 1990, one prompted by literally having no room to keep her paintings, the other by a botched abortion she had to endure.
Her art often gets ridiculed and a bad press, but if you look at her drawings and - especially - her lovely watercolours, she is clearly a fine artist and is probably one of the best of the now slightly faded Britart movement.
She claimed to love Edinburgh, and told me as her boyfriend is Scottish (also a photographer) she wants to spend more time here.
She is also, like me, from Margate in Kent, so I am not biased when I say her exhibition is definately worth a look this festival period, as long as you are prepared for some of its, shall we say, franker, aspects.

Flirting with Leni Riefenstahl
Among the many interesting things Budd Schulberg, the writer of On the Waterfront, told me yesterday was that, just after the war and while still working for the Air Force, he had to interview the film maker Leni Riefenstahl, who made films for the Nazis such as, most famously, Triumph of the Will. He was working for the Nuremburg Trials, and had to take her into custody so she could identify Nazi leaders for the court.
Schulberg said that throughout the process, the initially hysterical film maker constantly denied being a Nazi and was quite flirtatious with him the whole time.
He also said that the original version of On the Waterfront was meant to see Malloy die at the end of the play (which was conceived separately from the film). He said that would have been more realistic...but has now acqueisced and Malloy survives. "The myth is now bigger than the facts," he said.

Phil Miller