Celebrities offer gloomy forecasts; that is, if you can read their writing

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There are hazards to asking famous people to jot on a postcard a prediction for the next millennium: Some will be so sour on the future that their forecasts would make anyone gloomy. And some will write in a scrawl so unreadable that their predictions are bound to puzzle.

That was the case with John Gielgud. He dutifully filled out a postcard when authors David Kristof and Todd Nickerson asked 6,000 ''people of accomplishment'' from 80 nations to forecast what will happen between 2001 to 3000.

Back came 650 responses, but alas, Gielgud's looked as though it had been written with the stub of a cigar.

Finally, the partners in this enterprise photographed it, enlarged it, posted it on a wall and solicited assistance in deciphering it.

It turned out to be more prayer than prediction: ''As troubles seem to continue to assail us from every part of the world, may I pray that in the new millennium we may hope that a more peaceful solution may be found to make the future less fraught with dangers and tribulations.''

The blank cards went to everyone from calorie counter Jenny Craig (who predicted ''a way to control fat storage on our bodies'') to retired champion baseball manager Earl Weaver (gamely foreseeing world championships for the hapless Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox.)

Kristof, 32, and Nickerson, 30, colleagues at the high-tech firm of Lucent Technologies, sent requests to famous folks, including ''anyone who ever won a Nobel or ran a government.'' They reproduced 250 replies in a book, ''Predictions for the Next Millennium,'' and are arranging to display all of them for Empire State Building visitors awaiting a ride to the top.

Gloom among the famous seems pandemic.

Fantasy novelist Peter Straub, for one, predicts ''devastating new viruses and diseases,'' as well as ''environmental disasters; bloody racial and religious conflicts and many other poisonous inheritances from the present century.''

Not to be less downcast, American artist Paul Cadmus sees ''nothing but increasing deterioration in the world. Everything worsens: overpopulation thrives insanely, international poverty multiplies grotesquely, environmental conditions wither disastrously.'' Will life be worth living? ''I much doubt it.''

''The printed word shall vanish completely in the coming century, and with it the act of sober reflection,'' soberly reflects another author, Joseph Wambaugh.

And the late James A. Michener, the author, offered his own bleak appraisal: ''Concerning the improvement of the human species so that war or other criminal behavior is no longer possible, I have not much hope.''

Other forecasts:

* Departing Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich: ''Permanent colonies on Moon, Mars and asteroids by 2100.''

* Ex-moon walker Harrison Schmitt: ''The movement of humans into the vast reaches of the Milky Way galaxy.''

* Musician and songwriter Bruce Hornsby: ''A robot mowing your lawn. ... Flying from the U.S. to China for dinner. An African-American U.S. president.''

* Cartoonist Mort Walker: ''People will be laughing at 'I Love Lucy' reruns.''

* Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke: ''Proof of intelligent life elsewhere.''

* Sports writer Frank Deford: ''Race will all but disappear as an issue.''

* Doctor and suspense writer Robin Cook: A breakthrough in genetics that ''will enable medicine to obviate organ transplants.''

* British chemist Frederick Sanger, winner of two Nobels: By 3000 ''the average lifespan will be around 100 years.''

* Vintner Robert Mondavi: ''An increase in interest among all people in the varieties of wine and foods available on the Earth.''

* Singer Andy Williams, tune in cheek: ''Moon River will be the only non-polluted body of water on Earth.''