Quick Takes: Crystal to write book

Turning 65 next year doesn’t only mean more nap time for Billy Crystal. The actor and comedian is transforming the milestone into a book and maybe even a stage show.

Crystal has an agreement with Henry Holt and Co. for a book that will be part memoir, part meditation — with jokes — about getting older. He hopes to have it out around the time the big day arrives: March 14, 2013.

Crystal said he is considering adapting the book for the stage. He had enormous success with the Tony Award-winning “700 Sundays,” his one-man theater show that paid tribute to his late father.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but an official with knowledge of the negotiations said the book deal was worth around $4 million. The official was not authorized to discuss terms and spoke on condition of anonymity.

—Associated Press

Cover-up of art image is reversed

An airport in Edinburgh, Scotland, has reversed its decision to cover up portions of an art poster that depicts Pablo Picasso’s painting “Nude Woman in a Red Armchair.”

The poster appeared at the airport as part of an advertisement for the show “Picasso and Modern British Art,” which is running at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. After a handful of complaints from travelers, the airport decided to cover up the image with a white sheet, according to a report in the Edinburgh Evening News.

But the airport reversed its decision this week. A spokesman for the airport said that “on reflection we are more than happy to display the image in the terminal and we’d like to apologise, particularly to the exhibition organizers, for the confusion.”

—David Ng

FX drama series on Cold War era

FX is going into the recent past of Reagan-era Cold War America for its next drama series, “The Americans.”

The cable channel announced Thursday that it had ordered 13 episodes of the drama series created by”Falling Skies”writer Joe Weisberg.

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as a pair of KGB agents posing as a normal married couple living in the suburbs ofWashington, D.C., in the 1980s.

The series is Russell’s return to starring on a TV drama after her Golden Globe-winning run on “Felicity” from 1998 to 2002. She appeared in the canceled Fox comedy”Running Wilde” in 2010.

—Patrick Kevin Day

Plant to headline blues festival

Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant is heading to Mississippi to headline a festival in the historic Delta blues town he recorded a song about in 1999.

Plant recorded “Walking into Clarksdale” with former Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page and has visited the town numerous times. The rock star is returning to Clarksdale this weekend to headline the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival’s 25th-anniversary celebration with his new roots-music band, the Sensational Space Shifters.

Clarksdale and Coahoma County were the homes of early bluesmen W. C. Handy, Son House, Robert Johnson and Charley Patton. The area also was the stamping grounds of Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, Ike and Tina Turner, and Big Jack Johnson.

The town is home to the Delta Blues Museum.

—Associated Press

‘Flight’ to close New York fest

“Flight,” starring Denzel Washington as a pilot who saves almost all his passengers after a nearly miraculous crash landing, will be the closing-night film at the New York Film Festival, organizers said Thursday.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the Paramount Pictures film’s supporting cast includes Melissa Leo, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman and Don Cheadle. It will screen at the New York festival on Oct. 14 and open in general release Nov. 2.

“Flight” marks Zemeckis’ return to directing live-action films after a number of years on animated projects such as”Mars Needs Moms”and “Polar Express.” Previously, Zemeckis had hits with films including “Cast Away,””Forrest Gump”and”Back to the Future.”

The New York Film Festival runs Sept. 28 through Oct. 14 at Lincoln Center.

—Julie Makinen