The alter ego has landed

I READ that the British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is to spend a month in (the barren wastes of) Antarctica to gain inspiration for a newsymphony.

Sir Peter (62) will swap his isolated croft in an Orkneys valley for a freezing research station 6,000 miles away.

Estate agencies have hailed the deal as a breakthrough - no, no, that is facetious. Sir Peter intends to compose a sequel to Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antarctica, which he first saw performed 44 years ago in Manchester. He will leave in December - the Antarctic summer, when temperatures can rise as high as 5 C.

The composer has professed himself excited at the thought of the encounter with raw nature, with the power of silence and emptiness.

There's many a modern composer today who would do well to consider the power of silence, I wouldn't mind if a few more of them went off to the Antarctic to contemplate the nature of emptiness and didn't hurry back for Christmas either.

I could not agree more.

But it has been pointed out that Sir Peter's orchestral works rarely have conventional inspirations. One of his recent comedy overtures was klavis in Los Angeles, When the composer was touring the US in 1995, he was registered at the Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, as "Mavis", due, we are told, to a receptionist mishearing his name.

He was thus inspired to create this alter ego, sightseeing in the gambling capital - "I imagine her all outrageous flounces and hipjerks, her generous ballgown streaming." The Mavis variations on a solo violin theme represented her visits to various temples of kitsch nightclubs, wedding chapels, the Elvis shrine and the Liberace Museum.

But the truth behind this story is a little different.

I happen to be a longtime fan of the Flamingo Hotel, and though it is not a particularly upmarket establishment (at least not by Las Vegas standards) its staff is totally professional: Ruby, the elderly receptionist, was most upset when I related to her earlier this year the apocryphal tale about mishearing Sir Peter's name as Mavis.

In, reality, Ruby explained, Mavis had checked in just before Sir Peter, and it seems he may have thought that Ruby was addressing him instead of Mavis.

"I have to say I am disappointed to hear this," Ruby told me, what with him being a British lord and all that. Here in LA I am pretty used to handling guys with big egos, but this guy's alter ego beats Boston."

Ruby then introduced me to Mavis herself, and it turned out she is not at all like the character from Mavis in Los Angeles. The Flamingo's Mavis (indeed she is known locally as Flamingo Mavis), who has lived at the hotel since her last husband (Hiram) died, is a twice widowed lady of 87 from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is not an Elvis fan, she got married in church, and visited a nightclub on only one occasion (to drag Hiram home). Mavis does, however, adore the music and the memory of Liberace.

"Kitsch?" she asks, outraged. "Where does this Sir Peter guy think he is coming from? I'll bet he doesn't get half the audience Liberace did."

Mavis is considering a libel suit, and a figure of 5 million has been mentioned.

Meanwhile a more recent misunderstanding has also originated in a hotel this time the Santa Catalina Hotel on Gran Canaria. The story of Naomi Campbell's alleged overdose has already been well documented, but the true story of the "screaming match" between herself and her boyfriend Joaquin Cortes, and allegedly overheard by guests, has not been told.

I happen to know the Santa Catalina rather well - its rates of £150 per night are by no means outrageous - and the management is quite upset that the soundproofing qualities of its bedroom walls have been questioned.

However, the hotel housekeeper, Anna Concepta, an old friend of mine, tells me that the door of Naomi's room was slightly open, "and the row if you can call it that was rather predictable".

It was all about Joaquin's dallying with other women, then, as reported?

"No, no", Anna Concepta told me, "it was the usual thing between two people who book adjoining rooms in any hotel."

So it was about who got the better stocked minibar, the bigger bathroom, the most wardrobe space, the more comfortable bed and the best sea view?

"Exactly." {CORRECTION} 97061400016