Married this week was Harada Rika (photo, 34), a member of the 90s “sexy group” Giri-Giri Girls, who is also expecting a baby in May. Her new husband is a company employee who she met at a friend’s birthday party four years ago. The five-member Giri-Giri Girls were a staple of late-night TV for several years from 1992. They had a couple of music releases and even won a Best Newcomer award in 1993. Harada is the third member to marry – Yoshino Mika married Mr. Children vocalist Sakurai Kazutoshi in 2000, and Mochizuki Rumi married a company employee in 2004.
• Another marriage announcement came from NHK announcer Zemba Takako (30), who revealed this week that she and former musician Sena Shunsuke (32) got hitched last October. She plans to quit NHK in March and join her husband in London, where he works for Sony. Sena spent much of his childhood in Europe, returning to Japan in his late teens to enter Tokyo University, where he first met Zemba. He formed a duo with his sister Rie while still a student and continued even after joining Sony in 1998, releasing four singles. It is Zemba’s second marriage, her first ending in divorce in 2003.
• And one step behind in the baby front is TBS announcer Ando Hiroki (38), whose wife, former talento Kawahata Yuka (30), is expecting their first child this summer. Considered one of the best-looking couples in showbiz, they met while making “Sekai Fushigi Hakken” in 2004 and have been married since last September.
• Reports that actor Sugawara Bunta (72) had been hospitalized and was expected to undergo surgery have been denied. He is said to have suffered a cold in mid-January, but nothing more serious than that. It was also reported that he stepped down from his planned lead role in a stage production in March, but a spokesperson fr the theater says the decision to replace him with Watanabe Hiroyuki was made in December. Sugawara is best known for his tough guy yakuza image in the Fukasaku Kinji-directed movie series “Jingi Naki Tatakai” and as a truck driver in the “Torakku Yarou” series, both from the 70s.