Pathway to the Stars

What's your sign? when the film director Otto Preminger, no stranger to stars of the cinematic kind, was once asked the question, he replied, "I am a do-not-disturb sign." Whether people born under the astrological sign of Sagittarius, as Preminger was, are more likely than others to be creative in films hasn't been scientifically determined.

But researchers in Britain — who insist they're skeptics — are taking a closer look at aspects of human affairs to see if they can find correlations with the positions of celestial bodies. At the same time, some astrology boosters are pressing...