Popular actor Takahashi Katsunori (40) is to team up with busty actress Inoue Waka (25) in the latest school drama on TBS. In the series, as yet untitled but sceduled to air on Thursday nights from January, Takahashi will play a passionate school teacher who goes up against the ice-cool school board chairwoman, played by ‘Wakapai.’ Takahashi is best known for his equally passionate acting in the role of Salaryman Kintaro, adapted from the successful manga of the same name. Inoue has managed to get beyond her pin-up girl image and establish herself on the variety show circuit, though she is still strongly associated with her TV commercials for credit company Promise.
• Ditzy actress Yamaguchi Moe (28) and Ozeki Shigeo (30), the president of IT company Zeel, are to get married this weekend. Sunday is Ozeki’s birthday and they are expected to register their marriage on that day. they have no plans for a wedding ceremony or reception, and will make an official statement on November 7. The couple met in the spring of last year when Moe did a report on Ozeki’s high-flying lifestyle for the TBS variety show “Sekai Bari-bari Value.” Ozeki runs an online cosmetics business and a restaurant in Tokyo and has an annual salary of several hundred million yen.
• Johnny’s Jimusho group V6 have been busy celebrating the 10th anniversary of their showbiz debut. Currently third in line in the Johnny’s hierarchy behind SMAP and Tokio, the group played a series of three concerts at the Yoyogi Gymnasium where they made their debut in October 1995. Their new album “musicmind” entered the Oricon charts at No.1 on October 31.