Did Billy Dee Spoil “Empire Strikes Back” in ’80 Interview?

A recent post on The Hollywood Reporter website places all the blame on Billy Dee Williams for spoiling a major plot point in “The Empire Strikes Back” when he did an interview for “Today!” in 1980. I would disagree, saying that the host of the show is more to blame than Williams is. She omes right out and calls Lando Calrissian (whose name she mispronounces several times) “evil.” Williams comes to Lando’s defense stating that “He’s not evil. He’s just a guy caught in a situation. I mean, there’s Darth Vader, there’s his best friend and there’s his situation. And he’s got to figure out how he’s going to deal with all this.”

The video clip is an interesting look back on the promotions done for “The Empire Strikes back” in 1980. You can check it out after the jump.