Naomi's new game

Of course, Naomi Campbell is late for our interview. I can't say I'm surprised. The last time we met, five years ago, she arrived for ES's shoot a whopping nine hours after the rest of us had assembled, then flatly refused to say a word to me on the grounds that I was probably in a bad mood already. (She was quite right there.) I am so resigned to all this power play that I merely raise a weary eyebrow when informed that I will probably have to conduct our chat in the small hours of Monday morning, because Naomi is unexpectedly in New York. And consequently, I'm left almost speechless when, in a spectacular volte-face, La Campbell telephones from her hotel, a mere ten minutes later, all apologetic.

'My plane was delayed for five hours, because of the snow in Paris,' she explains politely. 'And sorry we're doing this on a Sunday, but I thought it would be better because my phone wouldn't be ringing all the time.'

Now the mildest-mannered supermodel might be pardoned for tetchiness having just stepped off a transatlantic flight that's taken twice as long as it should have done. And, as we all know, Naomi is no stranger to air rage.

Besides, she says, on a plane she gets time to chill out, which must be no small treat for a woman with a life as overcrowded as hers. Take today as an example: after our interview, she's off to make a documentary about black beauty with one of her mentors, the Sixties black model, now agent, Bethann Hardison, a long-time campaigner for greater racial diversity in fashion. Then there's the top-secret fashion shoot (involving 28 other models) that she's got to do; and, of course, the shows that she has to decide whether to grace with her presence or not. (She's decided not to strut the catwalk this year, she says, but she hopes to pop into London Fashion Week if she can get back from her shoot in time.) And she's just about to launch her 11th perfume.

I'd read that with the arrival of the teenage black model Jourdan Dunn on the catwalks and magazine covers, Naomi now felt happy about retiring and handing over her crown. She greets this suggestion with an irritated snort. 'Jourdan Dunn isn't Naomi Campbell,' she says tartly. 'I've never said I'm retiring, And if I did want to stop working, I'd just do it quietly. Because if you change your mind, you're going to have a hard time going back. I love what I do.'

Poor Naomi: she wouldn't be human (let alone the tough cookie that she clearly is - you don't get a seat at the supermodel top table for over two decades without having sharp elbows) if she didn't feel just a little irritated by the headlines hailing Dunn as the new Campbell. But to her credit, Naomi sounds the soul of grace and sincerity when she says that this is what she would like to be remembered for: 'fighting for black models to be accepted. It makes me feel happy to see Jourdan get covers and awards. I'm just so thrilled.'

That, of course, is something of an understatement: it's not just last year's air-rage incident, which happened after BA lost her Louis Vuitton bag and she lost her rag to such a degree that she ended up having to do community service. She seems to be forever hurling bejewelled telephones at people who annoy her, which is why I'm glad I'm at the other end of the line, thousands of miles away. Only this year, she finally settled out of court with a former maid who claimed she hit her when she couldn't find a pair of her jeans. I've been strictly warned off discussing these subjects with fiery Naomi, but I'm not sure I'd have dared anyway.

Since meeting Russian property billionaire Vlad Doronin, known as 'the Donald Trump' of Russia, at a party thrown for her by Dolce & Gabbana last year, however, Naomi appears to have mellowed somewhat. At any rate, no more phones have been launched, so far as we know.