X JAPAN will be holding two concerts in May as a memorial for the 10th death anniversary of guitarist hide. Titled "hide memorial summit," the 2-day event will bring together a total of roughly 20 artists, including LUNA SEA, Dir en grey, and T.M.Revolution.

hide, whose real name was Hideto Matsumoto, passed away on May 2, 1998. The memorial concerts are scheduled for the weekend of his death anniversary, May 3-4, at Tokyo's Ajinomoto Stadium. The event is being organized by hide's brother and produced by Yoshiki.

25-year-old model Mie is getting married to 23-year-old Teppei Tajima, an up-and-coming pro surfer who won several competitions last year. Mie is currently 4 months pregnant, and she will be leaving show business to support her husband.

The two met last July through a mutual friend and soon began dating. Mie discovered she was pregnant in January, and Tajima subsequently proposed. They plan to hold a private wedding this Sunday, before Tajima goes abroad for competition.

Mie debuted as a JJ model in 2001 and became a regular TV personality in 2005. With her marriage, she has announced that she is retiring from the entertainment industry.

Director Rokuro Mochizuki has been working on a movie about the infamous Sada Abe, a woman who became a national sensation in 1936 after killing and castrating her lover. Titled "Johnen: Sada no Ai," the film stars Aya Sugimoto ("Hana to Hebi") as Abe at the time of the incident.

Sada Abe's life has been the topic of multiple films in the past, including Nagisa Oshima's controversially explicit "In the Realm of the Senses" ("Ai no Corrida") and Nobuhiko Obayashi's prize-winning "SADA."

Kazuya Nakayama ("IZO") will co-star as Abe's lover Kichizo Ishida. Rock singer Yuya Uchida has also been cast in the film.

The movie, which carries an R-18 rating, opens on May 31.

Popular actor Shun Oguri has been chosen to do the voice of the protagonist Colin MacLeod in the director's cut of "Highlander: The Search for Vengeance." The animated film was released in the U.S. last year, but the original edit by director Yoshiaki Kawajiri is being released in Japan this summer.

A press event for the movie will take place on the 28th during the Tokyo International Anime Fair.

Actor Naritoshi Hayashi died of heart failure on February 6, it was learned on Wednesday. He was 76.

Hayashi, whose real name was Hisashi Hasegawa, was the eldest son of the late actor Kazuo Hasegawa. Hayashi made his film debut as a child in 1937 when he appeared in "Tsuchiya Chikara" alongside his father.

After graduation, he appeared in many movies, such as the 1953 version of "Mashiroki Fuji no Ne," though he retired from film in the 1960s and became a kabuki actor with Toho Kabuki, which was led by his father. He made a return to the big screen in the 1980s, including an appearance in Juzo Itami's "Tampopo."

23-year-old actress and pianist Nao Matsushita has graduated from the Tokyo College of Music. Due to work, she was unable to attend the graduation ceremony on Wednesday, but she received her diploma afterwards and met with the press.

Matsushita entered the college in 2003. She had originally planned to graduate last year, but her busy schedule left her 3 units short of completion.

33-year-old actress Maiko Kikuchi announced on her blog that she gave birth to her first child on Wednesday. The baby girl was named Asuka.

Both Kikuchi and the child are said to be healthy, and they have already been discharged from the hospital. The actress will return to work with a stage play this October.

Kikuchi has been married since July of last year.

Yet another song from Hikaru Utada's new album "HEART STATION" has been given a tie-in. The opening track, "Fight the Blues," will be used as the theme song for the TBS show "Houdou Tokushuu NEXT." This is her first tie-in with a news program.

The show, which is a revamped version of the currently airing "JNN Houdou Tokushuu," starts on April 5 in the network's Saturday 5:30pm time slot.