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An Idol's Darkest Hour | April 07, 2008 |
 Former idol star Kago Ai (20) is aiming to get maximum publicity from a dark period in her still brief life. As a member of top idol group Morning Musume and other Hello! Project spinoff groups, the baby-faced singer had a career that most teenage girls would envy. So what caused her to throw it all away? She spoke on the TV Asahi show "Super Morning" today about her indulgences in things that are strictly taboo for teenage starlets - romance (especially with an older man) and tobacco. A 2006 smoking incident led to a suspension by the Up-Front Agency, so when she was caught indulging again last year, it was even more serious. She offered the excuse today that her parents had just divorced that same day and her 37-year-old boyfriend (Kago was 18 at the time) suggested they go to an onsen to get away from it all. Magazine reporters photographed the couple in his car, with Kago smoking again. That was the final straw and when the news broke, she was fired by Up-Front. She says that with no job, no money, and a broken home, she fell into depression and cut her wrists with a scissors at her family home in Nara. Refusing to go to hospital, she had the injuries bandaged at home and promised her family she wouldn't do it again. The revelations come as Kago is trying to make a return to her showbiz career and, with a book about to be published, no doubt there will more sordid details on the way. Fellow MoMusu member Tsuji Nozomi, who formed the duo W with Kago, also went through some media bashing when she announced her pregnancy and engagement to "Ultraman" actor Sugiura Taiyo in early 2007.
• Actress Ohba Kumiko (48) has talked about her long battle with depression. In today's issue of weekly women's magazine "Fujin Kouron", she reveals that she first experienced panic attacks and depression when she turned 40 and even turned to self mutilation as recently as last summer. A top idol in the late 1970s, she became a household name as the star of the 1978-79 TBS series "Cometto-san." After that series, she retired as a singer to become a full-time actress. A failed restaurant business caused her to declare bankruptcy in 1994, and five years later she married a dancer six years her junior. But that marriage ended in late 2005.
• Singer Misono makes her TV drama debut in the TV Asahi series "Otome" next week. Real name Koda Misono, she's the younger sister of J-pop queen Koda Kumi (25), but was actually the bigger star from her debut in 2002 until 2005, when she was vocalist with the group Day After Tomorrow. One reason for the breakup of the group was said to be Misono's considerable weight gain. She's lost most of that weight, but had less success in the last couple of years using her real name and as her big sister's career has soared.
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