Dish from Dietrich's daughter: Maria Riva, daughter of Marlene Dietrich, addresses those lesbian rumors about her mother--as a new book and a TV documentary celebrate the star's 100th birthday. (Books).

Ah, Marlene Dietrich. Her beauty was considerable, but her go-to-hell spirit is the real reason why, 100 years after her birth, she's still equally cherished by lesbians and gay men. This November her fans had a chance to fall in love yet again, with Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memories (Knopf, $40), brimming with photos and mementos, including a letter from Dietrich's long-rumored lesbian lover, screenwriter Mercedes de Acosta.

Much of the text was supplied by Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva. In an E-mail interview with The Advocate--her first ever with the gay press--Riva declined to confirm the legends about Dietrich's bisexual adventures. But she parried our questions with a wit that reminds us why we found her mother so delightful.

A letter from Mercedes de Acosta to Dietrich appears on page 22, with the caption that de Acosta was on the rebound from Garbo and Dietrich was now her lover. Would you tell the story of their relationship?

Allow me to clarify: De Acosta was "the lover," Dietrich was the recipient. Not all lesbian relationships are those of mutual acceptance. The taker and receiver are often unresolved persuasions, romanticized experimentation, sometimes even physical forms of self-punishment excursions. To declare one's sexual preferences does not always make one free, no?

Could you talk a bit about Marlene's superb top hat and tails scene in Morocco, in which she kisses a woman in the audience?

"The kiss" was done simply to shock puritanical America. It was not a statement, no matter how much our changing times might wish it so. But shock it did.

It seems she openly enjoyed her great appeal to women as well as men. Is this something she ever spoke with you about?

Male attire, with its need for movement in battle--its lack of fuss and useless adornment, at least in later centuries--always suited Dietrich's superb sense of uncluttered style. Besides being comfortable--men can exude sex without having to expose flesh--this too defined Dietrich's mystic aura without needing to undress.

It has long been believed that Dietrich had an affair with Greta Garbo in Berlin, early in both their careers. Can you tell us anything about their romance?

No, again, no matter how much your readers might wish it were so, Dietrich never had a relationship with Garbo, nor would she have had, if approached. She considered Garbo a dour Swede, beautiful, perhaps--but intelligent? Hardly.

Find more on the book Marlene Dietrich ... and the Turner Classic Movies Dietrich filmfest at www.advocate.com