According to the gossip magazine "Friday", it is reported that Uehara
Takako (18) is going out with "Jesse" (21), who is the vocalist/guitarist a
hip hop group called "RIZE". According to Uehara's record company, they
are very good friends with each other. They know each other through
friends. They talk on the phone and exchanged mail with each other.
Because their age is close to each other, they wanted to become good
friends.

Just to update more about Uehara Takako's (18) boyfriend from "RIZE", Jesse
(21), it was discovered by "Friday" magazine that she spent a night at
Jesse's apartment. Jesse is actually Char's (guitarist) son. When Jesse
was going to the International School in Japan, he was really close to
Utada Hikaru (18). Uehara actually got to know Jesse through Utada.

Actress Fukada Kyoko announced at a press conference on 7/16 about selling
the T-shirt that she designed herself and used in the new Fuji drama
"Fighting Girl". There are two versions to the T-shirt. One is called
"Sparkle" in which the color of the pocket is black. The other one is
"Angelic", which has pink pockets. Fukada will wear the "Angelic" version
in the 7th episode. The first episode received a 17.1% viewers rating
while the second episode received a 15.5%.

Utada Hikaru (18) will be performing live on the popular MTV live show "MTV Unplugged". In previous episodes, famous celebrities such as Eric Clapton and Sting have also performed here. You will be able to see the acoustic version of Utada. The live will broadcast from 8/10/2001 and the next two days. On 9/27, Utada's video clips will be on sale.

Popular singer and songwriter Shinna Ringo (22) gave birth to her first
child on 7/15/2001. It is still unclear whether the baby is a boy or girl,
but according to associates, she gave birth last weekend. The father is a
guitarist in the back band "Yayoshi Junji" (33). They got married last
November, and Shinna also announced on her own homepage in January
that she was 5 months pregnant. This surpised everyone. Ringo's official
homepage is: http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/ringo/

After giving birth to her first daughter "Kokomi" on 5/1, Kudo Shizuka (31)
returned to her job by first involved in a "no medicine used campaign" CM.
In the CM, Kudo warns of the side effects and damages a pregnant mother can
transfer onto her baby. The making of the CM took four hours in the
studio, and Kudo expressed her concerns and trouble of taking care of
Kokomi. The record company can tell that Shizuka has a lot of
inconveniences as a mother of Kokomi.  On the other note, in celebration of Kokomi's birth, both Kudo Shizuka and Kimura Takuya will be distributing 150 adult sized T-shirts with Kokomi's footprint on the T-shirt, according to the 7/17 issue of "Jyosei jishin".  The T-shirt has Kokomi's footprint and a little name "CoCo" printed underneath the footprint. The name is produced by the father, Kimura Takuya.

Talent Yoshikawa Hinano (21) will release a new photo book since three
years called "Hinano no chu~(heart)" (Asahi Shuhansha) on sale 7/13/2001.
The photos are taken by Shinoyama Kishin. This is his first photo book
using the digital camera. Pictures include Tokyo's beer house, park,
supermarket, Shinjuku, Kabuki-cho, Hinano's living quarter, etc...There are
many sexy shots, too.

On 7/6/2001 concert at Tokyo Dome, Ayumi Hamasaki reported in front of 45,000 fans about the recovery of a sprain in her left ankle that occurred on 6/22/2001 at the first concert in Fukuoka Dome.  At the end of the encore of Ayu's new song "Unite!", Ayu reported, "Although there was an accident that caused me to have an injury in my left ankle, but it is already healed. Please do not worry." According to associates, the accident happened at the end of last rehearsal in the morning of the first day of the concert tour. During the opening, she fell from a 1.5 meters tall egg (setting) and sprain her left ankle as she fell
on the stage. She was taken to a nearby hospital.  After the accident, she continued to perform during the Nagoya and Osaka Dome. She insist on taking shots to relieve the pain and forces herself to perform the concerts. Seeing that she's in pain, many messages from the fans were left on Ayu's homepage asking whether she was okay. She responded to the fans during the encore. There were 16 songs in one concert, and she finished singing them all. Ayu will be performing the final concert on 7/7/2001 in Tokyo Dome.

Actress Hirosue Ryoko (20) rode a taxi for 150 km without any money,
according to the weekly magazine "FRIDAY." She rode for 2 and half hours
for a fee of 40,000 yen (~$400). Sometime during the latter half of June
at night, she had caught a taxi from her house to the filming for the drama
"Dekichatta kon." When she realized she had no money, she was going to
borrow the money from one of the staff. But no one was there yet, and the
drama filming didn't look like it was going to start anytime soon. Hirosue
ended up borrowing money from a nearby restaurant. She got home that
night by getting a ride from people she knew.  This is not the first time Hirosue has caused such an event. During an interview about the French movie "WASABI," the CM filming had to be cancelled because she started crying all of a sudden. Hirosue's production company is denying that Hirosue is showing signs of psychological instability.

Starting on 7/7/2001, MAX will start their concert tour of the year
"BitterSweet" at Saitama Wakko-shi Culture Center. Member, Reina (23)
explained that the concert will contain both extremeties of cool and cute.
They will arrange all their songs into "Club Style", said "Rina" (24). And
Nana (25) said that they want everyone to sing and dance with them. The
concert will consist of 16 songs, including their latest single "Perfect
Love".

Former leader of Morning Musume, Nakazawa Yuko and current "MM" member,
Goto Maki, are battling each other for the viewer's rate in the first episode for each of their own new drama.  Nakazawa is leading by 15.3% in Nippon TV's "Beauty 7" while Goto's new TBS drama "Maria" trailed behind with 13.0%.

Two members of the idol group "Arashi", Aiba Masaki and Ninomiya Kazuya
both expressed that they want to enter the Taiwanese market during their
promotion and interview in Taiwan. In Taiwan, a show called "Johnny's
Hour" broadcasted on Sanritsu TV will be broadcasted on TVBS, and the title
of the program will be changed to "I Love Johnny's". Aiba said that he
wanted to have a concert in Taiwan and Nino expressed his hype from the
passion of Taiwanese fans.