Carrie Courogen

Elaine May does not do press. It’s a quirk for which the elusive writer, director, and actor has become notorious; fans can count the number of interviews she’s given over her six-decade-plus career—including satirical ones she wrote herself—on two hands. She eschews publicists, offering instead the formulaic response to inquiring outlets that she “hasn’t had an interview since 1967!” She also routinely takes her own phone off the line and avoids most public events. But the spotlight grows ever…