The director’s new movie, about powerful people covering up evidence of aliens, struck a chord with some members of a growing group of government skeptics.

Steven Spielberg has settled an unusual debate about whether E.T., the titular extraterrestrial of his beloved 1982 family classic, was slimy or dry.

A clip of the interview has gone mildly viral, featuring interviewer Rachel Abrams straight-out asking Spielberg “Was ET slimy or dry?” before suggesting that this is a decades-old conundrum that had ...