Yikes — it is easy to understand how celebrities get insulated from criticism and surround themselves with yes men, but this Time story
claims that George Lucas did not realize that people did not universally love The Phantom Menace (I feel asleep near the end of the movie).
Maybe George Lucas ought to get out more. For the past three years, as he ruled his multimedia empire from the palatial redoubt of Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Calif., Lucas has dwelt in the lovely dream that his 1999 Star Wars movie, Episode I—The Phantom Menace, was universally loved. Lately, though, inquiring journalists have slapped him awake. “I’m getting my education now from the press,” he says. “They come in and say, ‘Wow. People hated your movie. What do you think about that?'”
That’s just a downright scary level of isolation.