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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Stuart Heritage

As Spielberg confirms whether ET was ‘slimy or dry’, we enter a new age of the celebrity interview

A wicking towel … Elliott and ET dealing with his moisture issues.
A wicking towel … Elliott and ET dealing with his moisture issues. Photograph: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Images

For the most part, Steven Spielberg has avoided most of the indignities of the modern day press tour. He hasn’t had to subject himself to any spicy chicken wings, or summon any witticisms when presented with a cloche-covered sausage roll. Unlike many other celebrities, he hasn’t chosen to promote Disclosure Day by answering softball questions while simultaneously fashioning a Lionel Richie-style clay approximation of himself for YouTube. For this he should be applauded.

Instead, Spielberg has spent this promotional cycle on something more suited to his stature. A maestro tour, if you will, on which he gets to position Disclosure Day against a body of work that is second to none. Publications have run long oral histories about his entire career. He was a guest during the prestigious final week of Stephen Colbert’s talkshow. He was interviewed by the New York Times about the exact texture of ET’s skin.

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