MONTREAL — Canadian director Norman Jewison, whose long career has included Oscars for his films and actors who have starred in them, doesn't know half the "movie stars'' that are under the age of 30.

Jewison told his audience at a literary festival Sunday that he has divided those who are in pictures into two categories: movie stars and actors.

For example, Jewison said that Arnold Schwarzenegger, now California governor, is a movie star while Denzel Washington is an actor.

But what really bothers Jewison is celebrity culture and what he calls the unhealthy obsession with it that permeates people's daily lives.

"It's ridiculous,'' Jewison said after speaking about his autobiography, This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me, at the festival, Montreal, World Book Capital.

"We're all being suffocated. I can't believe that people are obsessed like they are now with celebrity. I don't know what's going on.''

Jewison, 78, has directed films such as In the Heat of the Night (1967), which won five Academy Awards, A Soldier's Story (1984) starring Washington and Moonstruck (1987), which won Cher an Oscar.

"Half the movie stars today under the age of 30, I don't even know,'' he said.

"It's all a hype. Come on. How do you know whether anybody can act? You're told that they're a big star, you know, or somebody's got a cute ass or they've got great boobs.

"I can't buy it. I think we're living in age of such manipulation.''

Then he paused.

"I'm sounding so grouchy. Am I wrong?''