Excess ellipticity of hot and cold spots in the WMAP data?

We investigate claims of excess ellipticity of hot and cold spots in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data. Using the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from 7 yr of observations by the WMAP satellite, we find, contrary to previous claims of a 10σ detection of excess ellipticity in the 3 yr data, that the ellipticity of hot and cold spots is perfectly consistent with simulated CMB maps based on the concordance cosmology. We further test for excess obliquity and excess skewness/kurtosis of ellipticity and obliquity and find the WMAP7 data consistent with Gaussian simulated maps.