CELEBRITY WATCH
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From staff and wire reports

'Survivor' Skupin votes off Senate bid

LANSING, Michigan -- Save the headline "From 'Survivor' to Senator" for another day.

Michael Skupin, one of the contestants on "Survivor: The Australian Outback," says he won't be running for the U.S. Senate in 2002, The Associated Press reports.

Skupin says he doesn't want to spend too much time away from his family and his new company, Michael Skupin Ministries, which fights alcohol and drug addiction. Skupin also co-owns a religious software company.

"I have three children and one on the way and raising a good Christian family where the father is home is more important than any position," he said in a news release. "I want to be certain I'm doing the right thing for them."

Skupin earlier raised the possibility of a political career when he said he was considering a run against Sen. Carl Levin, a popular Democrat from Detroit. And he's not ruling out a future showdown.

"I know that I will have the opportunity again when the timing is better," Skupin said.

Chan: From cop to 'Bellboy'

HOLLYWOOD, California -- Jackie Chan will be walking in the footsteps of Jerry Lewis.

MGM is finalizing plans for the martial arts action hero to star in a remake of the Lewis 1960 classic "The Bellboy," according to Variety.

Chan has been attached to star in the film since it started its development last year. But MGM is moving to secure the star after his latest film, "Rush Hour 2," raked in over $67 million in its first three days, the fourth-best box office debut of all time.

Blanchard to head jazz school

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- Jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is taking over the jazz studies program at the University of New Orleans.

He's replacing his mentor, Ellis Marsalis, whom he once studied under.

"Ellis was unique," O'Brien said, according to The Associated Press. "It would take a lot of people to replace Ellis. But Terence is very committed to the position. He's going to carry a full complement of students."

The announcement was made Saturday at a combination Marsalis concert and retirement party.

Blanchard, 39, has performed music for Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," "Mo' Better Blues" and "Summer of Sam." He also composed scores for Lee's "Malcolm X" and "Clockers.'"

Keillor writes about surgery

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- Garrison Keillor, host of the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," says having open heart surgery is "an elemental defeat." But, beyond that, he's happy to be alive.

Keillor writes in the latest issue of Time magazine about last month's operation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

"Taking a slow postoperative stroll down the hall, heading for the lounge with the jigsaw puzzles, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the glass door ahead, a shambling galoot in droopy ... pajamas," he writes.

"This is not a guy whom any woman longs to have. ... It's hard for a man with a strong sense of himself ... to accept this elemental defeat."

"But it doesn't matter," he adds. "I'm still here on the planet."

And he's still willing to work. Keillor told The Associated Press he plans to start a new season of his radio show on October 6.