CELEBRITY WATCH
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From staff and wire reports

LOS ANGELES, California -- Wanted: host for awards show. Must be clever, witty and able to ad-lib for hours. The Academy is looking for a few good candidates for the host for the 2001 Oscars. Billy Crystal has hung up his bow tie and says he won't be emceeing the March ceremony.

"If everything goes according to plan, I'll just be finishing a new movie on March 22. I can't host the show ... days later," Crystal said in an interview this week. Crystal is currently co-writing and will co-star in "America's Sweethearts" with Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The Oscars ceremony airs on March 25.

Crystal has nearly become synonymous with the awards. The 72nd Oscars show this past March marked his seventh stint in 10 years as the show's host. Crystal has earned four Emmy Awards for his writing and hosting of the Oscars.

HOLLYWOOD, California -- What do you get when you cross "WWF Smackdown!" with "Survivor" and "The Fugitive"? A reality series called "Manhunt," of course.

The UPN network is teaming up with World Wrestling Federation Entertainment to produce the series, which will feature WWF-style bounty hunters and contestants, or "prey," who try to evade them. The show will be set on a Hawaiian island and the bounty hunters will be equipped with laser guns and other nonviolent weapons. A cash prize will be given to the last contestant standing at the end of each episode.

The series is scheduled to debut later this season.

NEW YORK -- It ain't exactly "Death of a Salesman," but then, Jon Stewart's acting career is just beginning. Stewart, anchor of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," has signed on to co-star in the Warner Bros. comedy, "Death to Smoochie."

Stewart plays a TV exec who fires a Barney-like kids' show host named Rainbow Randolph, who then plots the murder of his replacement, a blue rhino named Smoochie. The film stars Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Catherine Keener and Danny DeVito, who also directs.

In the meantime, Comedy Central will be left with an empty anchor chair for the next few months. The cable channel plans on using "Daily Show" correspondents, and Stewart will return on days he's not filming.

LONDON, England -- His father did not always practice what he sang, says Julian Lennon about John Lennon.

"I had a great deal of anger towards Dad because of his negligence and his attitude to peace and love," the younger Lennon has written on his Web site as the 20th anniversary of his famous father's death approaches. "That peace and love never came home to me."

Lennon also had a great deal of anger for his stepmother, Yoko Ono, he writes on www.julianlennon.com. "He was definitely afraid of fatherhood, the combination of that and his life with Yoko Ono led to the real breakdown of our relationship."

"I wonder what it would have been like if he were alive today. I guess it would have depended on whether he was 'John Lennon' (Dad) or 'John Ono Lennon' (manipulated lost soul)."

The ex-Beatle was shot outside his New York apartment on December 8, 1980, by Mark David Chapman.

• www.julianlennon.com

Wednesday Showbuzz: 'Queer as Folk' scores big on cable TV
Tuesday Showbuzz: 'Thirteen Days' held for 21 more
Monday Showbuzz: Music videos out, comics in on NBC
Friday Showbuzz: Tommy Tune leaving Las Vegas show
Thursday Showbuzz: Backstreet Boys bruise competition with 'Black & Blue'