George does like a lie everynow and again like the rest of us, my favourite one as has been mentioned is the current version of the original trilogy available as being his "original vision", and then it changes again, and I cant believe he doesnt know or has not any clue what goes in those books some of the time(though not necesserily reading them, a story and chracter outline he must see), and we all hope that him not wanting to release the O.O.T again is another lie(though I wouldnt count on that one).

As for the thread issue it does seem like Lucas was fed up with Star Wars by the time of Jedi and it may/may not have showed in the final product, and he I believe, I may be wrong, he was wanting to do less commerical filmaking(THX 1138 type things) at that point in time, and can well believe a 9 film trilogy was on the cards at one time or another....