Nigerian talento Bobby Ologun (39) got front page headlines in today’s sports papers following a brawl at his management agency yesterday. The K-1 fighter visited the agency yesterday afternoon with questions about his monthly salary, and became violent after the president of the company refused to see him. He got into a fight with the 2.1m tall John Muwete Muluaka (44), a fellow talento from Congo and former assistant to politician Suzuki Muneo. Muluaka and R&A Promotions boss Ito Kazuyuki (55) claim that Ologun and his Bangladeshi manager have been pocketing appearance fees to the tune of ¥10-15 million, in breach of a contract that splits fees 50-50 between the agency and employees. The incident also led to the revelation that Ologun is seven years older than he had previously claimed.
• Actor Fujiwara Tatsuya (23) is to take on the lead role in a movie adaptation of best-selling manga “Death Note”. The 9-volume manga, which has sold over 12 million copies, first appeared in the Shukan Shonen Jump manga in December 2003. The first volume became the fastest ever to sell a million copies. The story centers around the smart and cool high schooler Yagami Raito, into whose hands falls the Death Note, a list of names of people due to die, lost by the God of Death. His nemesis is the investigator known simply as L. At a cost of ¥2 billion, the movie will be in two parts, the first scheduled for release in June of this year, the second in October.
• “Tetsuko no Heya”, will be celebrating its 30th year on the air with the February 2 edition. The TV Asahi afternoon talk show is hosted by Kuroyanagi Tetsuko (72), who has welcomed a vast range of guests – over 3,900 of them – to her “room”. She has interviewed many foreign guests, including Queen Elizabeth II, and says she would most like to meet Sean Connery.