Students at the Zeal dance school in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo were excited to hear that Janet Jackson’s choreographer was to pay them a visit. So imagine their reaction when the star herself showed up. Some of the 23 students, aged between 10 and 26, had to fight tears as they put on a performance of the dance moves they had learned from the video for Jackson’s recent hit “Rock With You”. The singer (41), in town to promote her latest album “Discipline,” posed for photos and promised to invite all the students backstage when she visits Japan on her planned world tour. The tour is scheduled to kick off in September.
• Former actor Nakata Hiroto (32) was arrested for the third time yesterday for drug possession. He was arrested twice in the space of a month in 2002 and received a suspended jail sentence. The third arrest warrant for the son of actress Ozora Mayumi (68) and her ex-husband, actor Suguro Homare (67), was actually issued back in late 2003. But police waited to arrest him until Wednesday, when he was released from the hospital where he had been undergoing rehabilitation. His mother held a press conference yesterday to apologize for her son’s behavior. “If I could, I’d like to put him back in my womb and have him again, to start again from scratch,” she said. She said that she had changed her son’s registered name to her own a year ago, though she has been divorced from Suguro since 1982. Suguro once appeared on the big screen with Frank Sinatra, in the 1964 movie “None But the Brave.”
Actress Matsui Kazuyo (50) showed just how tough she is this week. While practicing to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game next week, she was hit square in the face by a regulation baseball and suffered a fractured nose. Bleeding badly, was taken to hospital by ambulance but with a very swollen and bandaged nose, she resumed practicing a couple of days later. Her husband, actor Funakoshi Eiichirou (47) said “She’s amazing, that woman. Indestructible!” Matsui is a regular on the variety show circuit and renowned for her good health and as a super housewife. She was married to a company president from 1986-96 and married Funakoshi in 2001. Speaking about her latest accident, she said “I’m glad I suffered this injury after getting married!” She still plans to throw the first pitch at the Rakuten Golden