Noriyuki Higashiyama will take on his first onnagata role in a production of "Farewell My Concubine," directed by Yukio Ninagawa. He will star as Cheng Dieyi, with Kenichi Endo playing Xiaolou and Yoshino Kimura playing Juxian.

Performances will run March 9-31 at the Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon in Shibuya, then April 5-13 at Theater Drama City in Osaka.

Rock bands stood on top of the charts this week. L'Arc~en~Ciel's newest release, "DAYBREAK'S BELL," sold 116,000 copies to lead the singles chart while Spitz's "Sazanami CD" sold about the same amount to be the #1 album.

"Gei School Otokogumi," the newest single from Nightmare's side project Sendai Kamotsu, entered the charts at #5, one spot above Aya Hirano's rock-infused "LOVE GUN." 9mm Parabellum Bullet debuted at #9 with "Discommunication e.p.," making them the first rock band since Aqua Timez to break the top ten with their first single.

The only other new single in the top ten was Miyu Nagase's "Key ~Yume Kara Samete~."

Besides Spitz, only two new Japanese albums entered the top ten this week: Suga Shikao's "ALL LIVE BEST" (#7) and Aya Kamiki's "Ashita no Tame ni" (#8).

Cast details have been revealed for Michel Gondry's "Hiroko and Akira in Tokyo," which is one segment in the movie "Tokyo!" The leads will be played by Ryo Kase and Ayako Fujitani, supported by Ayumi Ito, Satoshi Tsumabuki, and Nao Omori. Filming begins on the 23rd.

The movie, which opens in 2008, is composed of three segments directed separately by Gondry, Bong Joon-ho and Leos Carax. Joon-ho's piece, "Shaking Tokyo," finished filming last month. It stars Teruyuki Kagawa and Yu Aoi, with a supporting cast of Naoto Takenaka, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Yutaka Matsushige, and Yoshiyoshi Arakawa.

Carax's "Merde" is scheduled to begin shooting in November.

Last month, Puffy AmiYumi announced five North American shows as part of their "honeysweeper" tour. All of them are on the west coast, starting in Vancouver on November 11. The tour then travels to Seattle, San Francisco, West Hollywood, and Anaheim. More details can be found on their official site.

Cornelius has scheduled five U.S. performances for January. The tour starts in Los Angeles on the 17th and continues on to San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York. See the MySpace page for more information.

With the advent of the fall season, Oricon decided to find out which celebrities are the current fashion leaders. 500 men were asked who they want to copy, and as expected, Takuya Kimura came out on top. Satoshi Tsumabuki was #2, ahead of the third-ranked Masaharu Fukuyama and fourth-ranked Tsuyoshi Domoto.

L'Arc~en~Ciel's hyde was #5. Joe Odagiri and Mocomichi Hayami were next on the list, followed by a three-way tie for eighth among Noritake Kinashi (Tunnels), Shun Oguri, and George Tokoro.

500 women were asked the same question, but only the top five answers were revealed. At #1, despite recent bad press, was actress Erika Sawajiri. The rest of the list were Miho Tanaka, Ayumi Hamasaki, Yuri Ebihara, and Rinka (tied for #5 with Aoi Miyazaki).

The first episode of "Galileo," starring Masaharu Fukuyama and Kou Shibasaki, aired on Monday night. The broadcast pulled in a 24.7% viewership rating, beating out last Thursday's premiere of "Iryu 2" (21.0%). Both shows are in the top three starts of the year, surpassed only by the winter series "Karei Naru Ichizoku" (27.7%), which starred Takuya Kimura.

"Galileo" is Fuji TV's first "Getsu 9" drama to break 20% with the opening episode since the first half of 2006, when the network aired "Saiyuki" (29.2%) and "Top Caster" (23.1%).