Comedian Kimura Yuichi (43) and talento Henmi Emiri (29) are to hold a wedding ceremony and reception in April. The couple married on January 9, and Kimura said at the launch of his new cookbook on Saturday that the finals details have yet to be decided. It’s likely that any formal announcement will come from the PR department of Yoshimoto Kogyo, the agency that represents Kimura, known by his nickname of “Kimuni”.
• “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” got off to a good start at the box office. It opened on 800 screens on March 4, and looks set to break the opening-day record for Disney productions set in 2003 by “Finding Nemo” with ¥400 million. Nemo pulled in ¥11 billion altogether, while Narnia is expected to break the ¥15-billion mark. It has already made almost $670 million in 67 countries worldwide.
• The Rolling Stones are to release a Japan-only CD set that includes 8 of their mid-career LP albums. Not just a re-release on CD, the set includes reproductions of the original album covers and all liner notes, posters etc. For example, it includes the set of 12 postcards that came with the 1972 album “Exile on Main Street”. The set covers albums from 1971’s “Sticky Fingers” to 1981’s “Tattoo You”. It goes on sale from Toshiba EMI on March 15. There is sure to be great interest from fans outside Japan. The Japan leg of the Stones’ A Bigger Bang world tour has six dates, from March 22 (Tokyo Dome) to April 5 (Nagoya Dome).