Sunday, July 08, 2007

Can we laugh them?

I just watched a TV dram named "Fashion House," which described the world of fashion industry filled with twisted human desires. I belive that real biz world is as dirty as this drama. Probably every business magnate has this kind of dark side, and they are suffering from lots of stress, which can't be understood by ordinary people like me. I don't understand why the life of Tomoni Kahala and Kenji Haga has been so wrecked or wrenched. It seems like they've been under the stress.

According to Mainich Daily News:

Fallen star hits rock bottom after meteoric demise

Tomomi Kahala, once labeled the Cinderella of Japanese showbiz because of her meteoric rise to fame, has just found out that the clock has struck midnight in her fairytale, according to Shukan Josei (7/17).

The 32-year-old singer cum variety performer has found her career in yet another crisis after she was axed by her talent agency late last month.

"She cancelled a rehearsal for a TV show on June 19, pulled out of practice for a concert on June 20 and then yanked the plug on a few scheduled radio appearances on June 21," a reporter for a sports newspaper says. "That was the final straw for her agency and they sacked her soon after."

Kahala has not only lost her job, she also seems to have lost control of herself.

"She's into drugs. Every time she has worries with her work or her love life, she starts popping all sorts of pills -- sleeping pills, tranquilizers, even cold medicine. She scoffs into the drugs like they're candies," a showbiz insider says. "All the stuff she takes is legal, but she's addicted. She can't look you straight in the eyes, has trouble walking straight and is often barely articulate."

Kahala made her debut in 1995. Shortly after, she was unveiled as the lover of music producer Tetsuya Komuro, then reigning as the king of the Japanese pop world, and the young diva was hailed as his queen. But when Komuro dumped Kahala a few years later, her fairytale turned into a horror story.

First she was rushed off to a hospital in an ambulance after being poisoned by gas from an oven. It was only the first of a series of bizarre, attention-grabbing moments. She has since taken three long sabbaticals from work, been hospitalized for an overdose of prescription medicine, announced an impending marriage and then retracted the announcement moments later. She eventually sought refuge with a long stay in Canada.

Kahala had another sabbatical from December last year until March, pulling out of a stage play, and had only just returned to work a couple of weeks before she was fired. She's also been in the care of the constabulary recently.

"She was found collapsed on the road in a drunken stupor in (the Tokyo district of) Nishi Azabu one night and the cops took her into their care before sending her off to a hospital for treatment," the sports newspaper writer says. "In June alone, the cops picked up her up being drunk three times!"

And it wasn't just drunkenness.

"She was found staggering around one night with her hair all done up and decked out in a flashy dress like a nightclub hostess, but hadn't noticed one of her tits had popped out," the showbiz insider says.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/face/news/20070706p2g00m0dm003000c.html

It's easy to call her a pathetic girl. If you were her, what would you do?


Actor Kenji Haga failed in settlement deal before alleged blackmail crime

OSAKA -- Actor Kenji Haga, who is under arrest on suspicion of blackmailing a company manager in an attempt to evade about 400 million yen in debts he owed, tried to reach a 120 million yen settlement with the manager about 2 1/2 years earlier but his offer was turned down, it has emerged.

Osaka Prefectural Police suspect that Haga, 45, sought assistance from gangsters to blackmail the company manager after the settlement offer failed. It has emerged that Haga, whose real name is Mikio Toma, had played golf with gang-related people not connected with the crime over which he was arrested, and was on familiar terms with them.

Police accuse Haga of threatening the 51-year-old manager and pressuring him to accept 10 million yen in exchange for canceling his huge debts.

Sources close to the police investigation said that Haga received about 370 million yen from the company president in 2001, to purchase unlisted shares of a medical firm on behalf the president. However, the medical firm went under and plans to make money off the shares failed.

In about November 2003, Haga approached the company manager through a lawyer, offering him 120 million yen to settle the debt, but since he had promised to secure the loan the company manager refused.

Police said Haga discussed the issue with Jiro Watanabe, a former professional boxing world champion, and in June 2006 Watanabe allegedly threatened the company manager at a hotel in Osaka along with two other people including Toshikazu Kawakita, 69, a high-ranking member of a gang linked to the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate. When questioned by police, Watanabe reportedly admitted that he was on close terms with the leader of the gang, who is a top-ranking member of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Police said they sent documents on four suspects including Haga and Watanabe to public prosecutors on Monday. (Mainichi)

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070702p2a00m0na017000c.html

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