Edinburgh Festival / Day 16: Apparently . . .

Kirk Douglas's stand-up comic son, Eric, is now performing at three venues a night after a blaze of publicity followed a row with the promoter Karen Koren, who allegedly rejected his act for the Gilded Balloon. 'I have never met her and she has never seen my work. I am amazed she has the audacity to claim that my act is not up to scratch,' says Douglas, who says he resents being labelled as his father's son. Douglas is playing to moderate houses at the Acoustic Music Centre, Insinuendos and the Pleasance. 'It's a fairly routine comic act,' says David Grindlay, the Pleasance's assistant programmer. 'The bulk of the material is family-based.' . . . Rumours that the comic Scott Capurro changed his surname from Curtis to avoid family-based publicity are without foundation. He has, though, been given the Perrier Best Newcomer award. The Perrier organisers, anxious to avoid publicity of any kind, forgot to announce the award to the press . . .