  We consider a massless scalar field propagating in a weakly curved spacetime
whose metric is a solution to the linearized Einstein field equations. The
spacetime is assumed to be stationary and asymptotically flat, but no other
symmetries are imposed -- the spacetime can rotate and deviate strongly from
spherical symmetry. We prove that the late-time behavior of the scalar field is
identical to what it would be in a spherically-symmetric spacetime: it decays
in time according to an inverse power-law, with a power determined by the
angular profile of the initial wave packet (Price falloff theorem). The field's
late-time dynamics is insensitive to the nonspherical aspects of the metric,
and it is governed entirely by the spacetime's total gravitational mass; other
multipole moments, and in particular the spacetime's total angular momentum, do
not enter in the description of the field's late-time behavior. This extended
formulation of Price's falloff theorem appears to be at odds with previous
studies of radiative decay in the spacetime of a Kerr black hole. We show,
however, that the contradiction is only apparent, and that it is largely an
artifact of the Boyer-Lindquist coordinates adopted in these studies.
