Transsexual celebrity Carrousel Maki (61) is now officially a woman. Under a recent change to the law, she was allowed to legally change her sex in her family register. Real name Hirahara Tetsuo, she is one of nine children born to a Hokkaido family. After making a debut at 15 and working in gay bars across the country, at the age of 29 she went to Morrocco to have a sex change operation. On returning to Japan, with feminine looks and an unmistakably male voice, she became a star of TV, movies and stage. In recent years, she has made headlines for drug arrests.
• “2046,” the new Hong Kong movie that features SMAP‘s Kimura Takuya (32), is set to open here on October 23. Compared to the version that showed at the Canes Film Festival in May, the “local” version will feature a lot more scenes of Kimutaku, increasing his on-screen time from a mere 7 minutes to about 20. Directed by Wong Kar Wai and starring Tony Leung and Fay Wong, the movie was a full five years in the making and was beseiged with problems. The final reels only barely made Cannes, and the screening had to be delayed as a result.