Theater director Amon Miyamoto is putting together a production of "Turandot," best known as an opera by Puccini. Miyamoto's version has composer Joe Hisaishi in charge of writing all the music and stars Taiwanese pop singer A-mei as the title character.

Shido Nakamura and Goro Kishitani are co-starring. Other cast members include Taichi Saotome, Natsumi Abe, Yukiya Kitamura, and Katsuya Kobayashi.

The musical will run from March 27 to April 27 at the Akasaka ACT Theater, followed by performances in Osaka and Nagoya.

Pro wrestler Super Delfin and talento Yoshie Hayasaka have become parents. Hayasaka gave birth to a daughter on Wednesday, and Super Delfin's wrestling association publicly announced the news the same day.

The couple has been married since December 2003.

On Tuesday, Tohan announced its list of the best selling books of 2007 (sales data was aggregated from December to November). The #1 book this year is Mariko Bando's "Josei no Hinkaku," which aims to show working women how to maintain their dignity.

The #2 book is "Homeless Chugakusei," an autobiography by Kirin comedian Hiroshi Tamura. It has skyrocketed to popularity since its release a little more than three months ago.

Junichi Watanabe's "Dokanryoku" is ranked third. The #1 book of 2006, Masahiko Fujiwara's "Kokka no Hinkaku," dropped to 11th.

Several mobile phone novels became best-sellers in book form this year. "Koizora" ranked 10th, and the top 20 included "Akai Ito" and "Moshimo Kimi ga."

Meanwhile, the "Pokemon" franchise spawned three different best-selling guides for "Pokemon Diamond and Pearl." The books ranked 8th, 9th, and 16th.

The complete top 20 is available on the Tohan website.

Singer and actress Ami Suzuki will star in a TV Asahi drama special titled "Oishii Depachika," it was announced on Wednesday. This is only her second lead role in a drama, with the first being NHK's "Fukaku Mogure" in 2000.

The drama is based on the manga "Oishii Ginza" by Ikuko Sakagawa, which has been serialized in Office YOU since August 2001. The story is set in a Ginza "depachika" - a term referring to the food section of a department store, located in the basement - where Suzuki plays a seller struggling to keep her place in the store.

Kazuhiko Nishimura plays a manager at the department store, and Mansaku Fuwa plays a pig farm owner.

TV Asahi has also announced a promotional tie-in with its shopping site, which will sell two original dishes that appear in the drama after the show is broadcast. "Oishii Depachika" airs on January 4 at 11:30pm.

Actress Yu Yamada has been revealed as part of the cast of the upcoming "Nodame Cantabile" drama special, scheduled to air on January 4-5 on Fuji TV.

Yamada plays Son Rui, a Chinese prodigy who becomes rivals with Nodame. Although Yamada had no prior experience in playing piano, she recently took lessons and practiced on her own at home before the performance scenes were filmed.

Oricon polled 500 women on which male celebrity they would want as their lover. Masaharu Fukuyama was the #1 choice, just as he was last year when the same question was asked regarding male music artists.

Koichi Domoto made the list at #2, just ahead of Hiroshi Tamaki. Tsuyoshi Domoto tied with Takuya Kimura for #4, while Junichi Okada and Jin Akanishi tied for #6. Joe Odagiri stood alone at #8, but there was another tie at #9 between Satoshi Tsumabuki and Tomohisa Yamashita.

The winners of the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival have been announced. The grand prize in the Animation Division went to "Summer Days with Coo," directed by Keiichi Hara. In the Manga Division, Mamora Goda took the top honor with "Mori no Asagao."

"Wii Sports" won the Entertainment Division (with artist credit to Keizo Ota, and Jean-Gabriel Periot won in the Art Division for his film "nijuman no borei (200000 Phantoms)."

The full list of awards is available at the Japan Media Arts Festival site.