Actress Mizuki Arisa celebrated her 28th birthday on Sunday, the final day of shooting of her new film "Tobi ga Kururi to." Director Sonoda Kenji presented her with a big bouquet of flowerts after he called the final "cut." The film is scheduled to open next year. • The copyright infringement case (see earlier story) involving former Morning Musume member Abe Natsumi (23) led to an official apology by all 45 members of the Hello! Project. At the Hello! Project Sports Festival 2004 in Saitama on Sunday, former MM member Nakazawa Yuko (31) spoke to the 26,000 fans and apologized for the "meiwaku" (inconvenience). All 45 celebrities then gave the customary deep bow of apology.
Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 65 Location: Sydney Country:
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:18 am Post subject:
....what else can I say? Damn, when I first heard about this business with Nacchi, it hit hard. She must be doing it tough at the moment...Gambarei yo...
As for the assertion that her career is pretty much in shambles, I hope not. There aren't too many better female vocalists in Japan than Abe Natsumi, which is what sets the late '90's MoMusu apart from the Y2K + versions, and I was looking forward to buying every Nacchi album for the next 10 years or so. There should be an Emoticon on here for 'Devastated', but this will have to do:
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:04 am Post subject: Naughty Nacchi plagiarises other peoples work
In light of the naitonal (and to an extent) international outrage Nachi plagiarism incident has caused, I�ve decided to call this scandal �Nacchi-gate�
Nacchi-gate Theory #1-3:
1) This is a publicity stunt by UFG to generate publicity for the H!P all -stars single and by suspending her for 2 months, will create a wave of publicity for Nacchi's "comeback". Bear in mind that female idols in Japan are regarded (In the eyes of the employers) as expendable assets and Nacchi is no exception.
2) That this was a conspiracy by rival record companies to discredit H!P and to cause animosity within the H!P ranks to the extent where the fallout and stench connected to H!P will be so bad that many current H!P artists will begin defecting to other labels to save their careers.
3) Despite being a prominent member of Momusu and H!P, Nacchi has been in bed with a rival record label/labels for a number of years. Nacchi knows that one day UFG will put her out to pasture in favour of younger talent.
Seeing the opportunity to strike a major blow against UFG, the rival labels conspire with Nacchi and disgruntled elements of UFG to stage a scandal involving plagiarised poetry and time the scandal to co-incide with many H!P events taking place such as the release of H!P allstars and the H!P winter concerts. This scandal will be a public relations nuclear strike against UFG.
And it�s no doubt in my mind that Nacchi along with the publishers and many other conspirators have been paid VERY generously to participate in this exercise.
The Tokyo suburban home of comedian Shimura Ken (54) was recently burglarized. About \400,000 in cash and \1 million valuables were stolen from the house in Mitaka on Tuesday evening. A private security company employee came to the house after an alarm was triggered and contacted police when he found a ground-floor window broken. • It was revealed yesterday that actress Fuji Takako (32) and actor Watanabe Joji (36) have been divorced since October. They are both members of the same theater group. Fuji played the ghost Kayako in the Shimizu Takashi-directed "Juon" horror movie series, which he recently remade as "The Grudge" starring Hollywood actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Fuji TV announcer Fukumoto Hanae (photo, 28) is five months pregnant. She married Kintetsu Buffaloes baseball player Fukumori Kazuo (29) in January. With both names beginning with the character "fuku," which means good fortune, it seems the happy couple are now triply blessed. Fukumori is to pitch for the newly formed Rakuten Golden Eagles team from next season, after Kintetsu and Orix BlueWave merged at the end of last season. • Weekly magazine Friday published photos of actor Kanda Masaki (53) in a seemingly romantic situation with actress Ikegami Kimiko (45). The two are performing together in a theater production in Nagoya, and rumors have surrounded them for some time. Kanda, who was formerly married to singer Matsuda Seiko, is with the Ishihara Pro agency, who deny the rumors. • Comedian Yamazaki Hosei (36) had his motorbike stolen from in front of his home in Tokyo's Meguro ward. He was at home with his wife and two children at the time.
If you're interested in the currently underway film adaptation of Arthur Golden famous novel "Memoirs of a Geisha"... It is an epic story of love and betrayal... Nine-year old Chiyo, a poor fisherman's daughter...
Similar to Jinno Sakurako in Yamato Nadeshiko, ne?
-PCM
Variety show host Shimada Shinsuke (48) has paid a \300,000 fine to an Osaka court in his recent assault case, but he may not be out of the woods yet. The Yoshimoto comedian assaulted a company employee after a show in October, and she took the matter to the police. Later she took it to the Osaka District Court, when Shimada's tearful press conference, televised live, failed to persuade her of his remorse. The case was relegated to the Osaka Summary Court for non-criminal offenses, where the fine was handed out. The woman still has the option of taking out a civil suit and seeking personal damages. The case has forced Shimada to step down as main presenter on eight different variety shows. During his press conference, he said he would quit show business if he was asked to, and she said this week that if he is really sorry for what he did, he should keep his word and quit. Yoshimoto had been planning for him to make a return in April, when new schedules start, but this case may actually put an end to his career.
Yomiuri Giants baseball star Kuroda Satoshi (29) and talento Niiyama Chiharu (photo, 23) got hitched yesterday evening in Kawasaki. The couple went together to the municipal office to register their marriage, having gotten engaged on December 4 in Niiyama's hometown of Aomori. They originally planned to have their weding and honeymoon in Paris, but decided to head for the considerably warmer Bali in Indonesia. They leave today and plan to have a church ceremony for two and return to Japan on the 18th. • Dochin Yoshikuni (26) of the soul duo Chemistry is a father. He and his wife, former talento Morita Atsuko (25), married in June, and she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy yesterday. She had a fall when 8 months pregnant and was taken to hospital by Giants slugger Kiyohara Kazuhiro, who lives in the same apartment building.
Game fans shivered in long lines through Sunday night in order to be among the first in the world to get their hands on the new PlayStation Portable (PSP) from Sony, their first handheld game machine. About 200,000 of the sleek black devices sold out within hours. The PSP is able to play movies, music and games, and is seen as a serious rival to Nintendo's iron grip on the portable game-player market. The PSP, at a discounted launch price of \19,800 ($189), went on sale 10 days after the successful launch of Nintendo DS. • Singer Hajime Chitose (25) is to make her post-marriage comeback in February. Her hit single "Kono Machi" (This Town) is to be used as the theme song for the movie "Ichigo no Kakera" (A Piece of Strawberry). Hajime married a restaurateur in January. • Yet to make his TV debut, actor Mitamura Shun has already been married and divorced at the age of 23. His father, actor Mitamura Kunihiko (51), gave the game away on a variety show, also revealing that he was the grandfather of a 9-month old baby. With the younger Mitamura set to make his debut in a new TBS drama in January, his father thought he should set the record straight.
Popular Fuji TV announcer Sasaki Kyoko (photo, 31) is romantically involved with TBS "ana" Ikeda Hiroyuki (42), according to the latest issue of Flash magazine. The magazine revealed that the couple bought an \80 million apartment in Tokyo at the end of last month. Around the same time, Friday magazine caught Sasaki out on a date with an employee of a foreign firm. Ikeda, a presenter on the TBS "News no Mori" show, and Sasaki are said to have postponed their planned wedding till early next year. • Speaking of wedding plans, actor Takashima Masahiro (39) announced recently that he and beautiful musical actress Sylvia Grab (30) are engaged to be married next autumn. Grab, the daughter of a Swiss father and Japanese mother, appeared with Takashima in a musical in 2000.
The upcoming new single from pop group SMAP is really something quite remarkable. "Tomodachi he...Say What You Will" has music and lyrics by none other than Eric Clapton (59). The lyrics have been translated into Japanese by record-breaking artist Takeuchi Mariya (49), and it is arranged by Mr. Children producer Kobayashi Takeshi (45). SMAP have had a very quiet year as a group, although they're everywhere on the variety show circuit. They didn't release any CDs or tour at all, and they won't be appearing on Kohaku at New Year. In fact, the new single will be their first musical offering in two years. The song is said to be a medium-tempo, upbeat appeal for world friendship and peace. Clapton's collaboration is inspired by the "Love the Earth" theme of next year's World Expo, set to open in Aichi in March. • Korean heart-throb Bae Yong Joon (32) is back in Japan again, though this time without fans finding out. Last month, there was mass pandemonium at both his hotel and Narita airport and some of the thousands of middle-aged housewife fans were even hurt in the chaos. So this time, he quietly entered the country via Fukuoka airport and drove across the country to Tokyo. Local Fukuoka news reported his arrival but didn't know the purpose of his latest visit.
gives us asian guys a bad rep! but before you women laugh, they said that they're thinking of coming out with a "boyfriend arms pillow" for women!!
Yeah, I caught that on the news the other day too... Actually, I thought the "arms pillow" was around for a while already... I vaguely remember a news report on it earlier in the year....
The major Japanese search engines have released the top search terms for the year. Figures from Yahoo, Goo, Google, Infoseek and Excite indicate a couple of the biggest topics of the year - the establishement of a new baseball franchise and the Korean pop culture boom (hanryu). Rakuten, the company that won the battle with fellow Internet startup Livedoor to establish a yakyu team in Sendai, broke into the Top 10 on both Yahoo and Goo. The comapny-sponsored Golden Eagles will be the 6th Pacific League team next season. The Korean soap opera "Winter Sonanta" ranked highly on both Google and Yahoo. Star Bae Jong Joon (32), known widely as "Yon-sama" was the most popular male celebrity on Infoseek's rankings and No.2 on Yahoo.
Pop group Morning Musume are to be the official 'support group' for the newly formed Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team. "The Manpower," penned by MM and Hello! Project svengali Tsunku (photo, 36), will go on sale on January 19. the song wil be played at Sendai Stadium before games next season to fire up the new team. Rakuten president Mikitani Hiroshi (39) is expected to bring a host of fresh businesses approaches to the often staid pro baseball world. • Korean heart throb Bae Yong Joon (32) has sent a special gift to each of the middle-aged female fans injured in crowd chaos during his visit to Japan last month. • Singer Hamasaki Ayumi (26) has become just the third Japanese to have a waxwork lookalike created at Madame Tussaud's in Hong Kong. The others are the late politician Yoshida Shigeru and sumo yokozuna Chiyonofuji.
CM Databank, a company that analyzes the performance of TV commercials, has released its report for 2004. The most popular male and female commercial stars were SMAP member Kimura Takuya and Hello! Project member Matsuura Aya (photo, 18). SMAP again dominated the rankings, despite the fact that they didn't release any CDs or do any touring this year. In 6th and 7th places in the overall rankings are Kuu-chan and Shimizu Shogo. The names may not be familiar, but they are the chihuahua and its middle-aged owner who star in the hugely popular commercials for credit company Aiful.
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