Otake Shinobu (45) became the third Japanese in a row to win the Best Actress award at the Moscow International Film Festival. Otake – ex-wife of comedian Akashiya Sanma – won for her role in the movie “Fukuro” by director Shindo Kaneto (91). This follows wins by Ichikawa Mikako (25) in “Blue” (2001) and Miyazawa Rie (30) in the Hong Kong movie “Yuuen Kyomu” (2002).
• Comedian Shofukutei Tsurube (51) had a bit of unexpected exposure during a late-night segment of Fuji TV’s 27-hour telethon. Around 2am and after a heavy drinking bout, Tsurube was fast asleep on location in Nagasaki. When woken up by presenters in the Tokyo studio, he stood up in his futon, only for his pants to fall down. The Saturday night audience got a brief full frontal exposure before the camera switched back to the studio. The station later issued an apology but still received about 200 calls.