Talk about Beauty and the Beast! Well, that hardly seems fair to Yoshimoto comedian Tsutsumishita Atsushi (29), but that’s how the media are reporting his newly-discovered romance with fashion model Tokita Reiko (22). The chubby member of manzai duo Impulse weighs in at 80kg but that didn’t put off Tokita, who made the first move last autumn when the pair worked together on a variety show. What has reporters speculating that this is a serious relationship is the fact that they spent a week together over the New Year break at the luxury Bulgari Resort in Bali, where rooms cost around $1,000 a night. Tsutsumishita told comedian Akashiya Sanma (51) about the trip during the recent recording of this weekend’s edition of his show, “Sanma no Super Karakuri TV”, adding that it cleaned out his savings. The couple met on another Sanma-hosted show, “Odoru! Sanma Goten” variety show in October, with Tokita telling Tsutsumishita on air that she was an Impulse fan and liked him. Sanma got them to exchange telephone numbers and they clearly took it from there. Impulse, with Itakura Shunsuke as the boke, made their debut in 1998. Tokita made her debut in the teen magazine “Cawaii!” while she was in high school.
• Sunday’s opening episode of Kimura Takuya‘s latest drama scored a high 27.7% audience rating in the Kanto region, according to Video Research. TBS’s “Karenaru Ichizoku” is by far the most popular drama of the winter season, though its ratings still fall well below Kimutaku’s best. Of the 12 series he’s starred in going back to Fuji’s mega-hit “Long Vacation” in 1996, the latest opener ranked only 8th.