“Promise,” the Chinese movie starring Sanada Hiroyuki (45), has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. The movie, which only had its world premier in Beijing this week and is not scheduled to open here until next February, was nominated for Best Foreign Film. “Memoirs of a Geisha” star Zhang Ziyi (26) was nominated for Best Actress, with the movie also getting the nod for Best Score. The award ceremony will be held on January 16 in Los Angeles.
• Mino Monta (61), the busiest man in Japanese showbiz, is to undergo surgery just days after he hosts NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen on New Year’s Eve. Monta, who hosts five hours of live TV every day as well as several weekly recorded shows, will enter hospital on New Year’s Day and have surgery on January 4. He plans to be back hosting his three live shows from January 14. The surgery is for a condition called spinal stenosis, caused by a narrowing of the spinal canal, which leads to back pain and difficulty in walking. Monta started experiencing lower back pains in April.
• Actor Mitamura Kunihiko (52) has once again shown his preference for much younger women. According to the latest issue of weekly gossip magazine Friday, a 25-year-old TV production company employee was spotted spending the night at his Osaka apartment earlier this month. Mitamura married actress Nakayama Maki (57) in 1980 but they divorced in 1999 after his affair with actress Takahashi Kaori (30).