Actress Yamaguchi Moe (28) was beaming as she proudly showed off her engagement ring yesterday. She and IT company president Ozeki Shigeo (31) got hitched on Sunday, Ozeki’s birthday. Yamaguchi flashed her 3-carat diamond ring and showed her usual ditzy character during a packed press conference. She didn’t give a clear answer when asked if she plans to quit showbiz. But her new hubbie, as one of the wealthiest and most prominent of the high-profile IT entrepreneurs, certainly won’t be needing to send her out to work.
• Pop singer and musical performer Honda Minako died of acute myelocytic leukemia on Sunday, according to her family. She was 38. She was diagnosed as suffering from leukemia in January and went public with her fight against the disease, while being hospitalized several times.
Honda had repeatedly been hospitalized in the final months of her life. She had a string of hits between the mid-1980s and early 90s. She then took to the stage, playing the lead in “Miss Saigon,” which became her signature role. Her funeral will be held Wednesday in Saitama Prefecture.
• Several cast members of the latest Harry Potter movie are scheduled to visit Japan this month. The fourth in the movie series, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” had its world premiere in London on Sunday. It opens here on November 26, and Emma Watson (15), Rupert Grint (17) and Katie Lang (18) will be arriving a week before for a fan event and preview screening. Lang, of Chinese descent and raised in Scotland, is making her movie debut as Harry’s first love interest. The series, like the books on which it is based, is hugely popular here but has seen declining box office returns. The first movie pulled in ¥20.3 billion, the second ¥17.3 billion and the latest made a mere ¥13.5 billion. Producers are probably just aiming to break the ¥10-billion mark this time, but optimistically say they expect ¥15 billion.