Everyone knows Steve Jobs is a consummate showman; in fact, we have our own pet theory that involves the earthly remains of P. T. Barnum and an advanced cloning technique years ahead of what the general public believes to be currently possible. Whether you buy that or not, you have to acknowledge that Steve knows how to manipulate the opinions of the media and the public like a virtuoso. In fact, before he returned, Apple as a whole was pitifully weak in the whole public relations area, which was a big part of the whole death spiral thing; now, instead of seeing the company as a dying dinosaur killing time in its last days, people see Apple as an innovative underdog who makes computers that are easy to use and cool to look at. Quite a coup.

So is it really any surprise that Uncle Steve has managed to align Apple with what may well be the biggest upcoming movie event of the decade? The fifteen-year wait for a new Star Wars movie finally ends this May when Episode I: The Phantom Menace is released. Many theaters started selling advance tickets months ago for the first showings, and quickly sold out. People who were desperate to see the trailer for the new film and heard that it was being shown before and after Meet Joe Black actually bought tickets to the Brad Pitt-a-thon, watched the Phantom Menace trailer, adjourned to the lobby to discuss how cool it was for an hour and a half, and then went back into the theater to watch the trailer a second time. Evidently Steve heard about all this hoopla and realized that getting Apple in on that action would be a Good Thing™. It was at this point that we assume he made some calls...

And, voilà: the Internet premiere of the second Phantom Menace trailer took place jointly at the Star Wars site and at an Apple web page, available only in QuickTime format. As faithful viewer Brian Hall points out, you don't want to miss what's at the Star Wars page, since it includes some interesting stuff not available at the Apple page-- namely, a photo of an engineer hard at work in front of two "icebox" G3's and some Apple-polishing quotes from Lucasfilm's Director of Marketing about how "George Lucas wanted to create the highest-quality Internet viewing experience for [the] trailer, so [they] turned to QuickTime because it sets the standard for Internet video quality." And, of course, Steve himself pipes in, noting that the new trailer isn't available to "Real Networks' Real Player" or "Microsoft's Media Player," but only on QuickTime. Let's see-- Apple rides the coattails of one of the biggest movie events in history, grabbing consumer moviegoing eyes and the attention of both the media and the entertainment industry only a month before the expected unveiling of QuickTime 4 at the National Association of Broadcasters convention. Is that a master stroke, or what?