Billy Crystal matches wits with aging in planned book

Actor Billy Crystal hosts the 84th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 26, 2012, in Hollywood, Calif.

/ ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Comedian Billy Crystal is using his upcoming 65th birthday to reflect on aging and will turn his musings into a book and possibly a "700 Sundays"-type stage show.

Crystal has an agreement with Henry Holt and Company for a book that will be part memoir, part meditation with jokes about getting older.

Pictures: Look who's 65!
Pictures: Billy Crystal
Pictures: Billy at bat
Pictures: "700 Sundays" Down Under

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

During a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press, Crystal, a nine-time Oscar host, said that he hoped to have the currently untitled book out around the time the big day arrives, March 14, 2013.

"There are 77 million of us baby boomers in the country and this book will speak to them and how we look at the world," he said.

He's considering adapting the book for the stage. A lifelong Yankees fan, Crystal had enormous success with the Tony Award-winning "700 Sundays," his one-man theater show that paid tribute to his late father with whom Crystal has said he spent 700 Sundays, watching baseball.

The Broadway show won a Tony in 2005 for Best Special Theatrical Event. Crystal later took the production on tour.

Crystal has written several previous books, including children's stories and an adaptation of "700 Sundays."