Fashion model Anne will serve as the "main character" of this year's CoFesta (Japan International Contents Festival), which is taking place from September 30 to October 28. Now in its second year, the festival consists of a wide range of media events, including Tokyo Game Show, Tokyo International Film Festival, and Tokyo Asia Music Market.

Anne, who is the daughter of Ken Watanabe, will help promote the festival through advertising and PR events. Last year's representative was renowned actor Koji Yakusho. Anne has also been successful internationally as a model, and recently she was given her first starring role as an actress in a French film called "Fashion Week," directed by Claude Junior Zidi (details here).

Anime News Network reports that the classic shojo manga series "Glass Mask" ("Garasu no Kamen") will be resuming in Hakusensha's Bessatsu Hana to Yume magazine this summer. Written by Suzue Miuchi, the comic originally started its serialization in Hana to Yume in 1976 and was collected in 42 volumes over the years. The story will apparently continue from the end of the original run.

33-year-old television actress Kaori Yamaguchi publicly announced on her blog on Thursday that she is married. Although she did not reveal how long she has been married, she did mention that her husband is someone who works in TV show production.

Yamaguchi generally plays minor roles in dramas, often appearing as a guest or in a single episode only.

Oricon recently conducted a couple of drama-related surveys. One of them asked a thousand men and women to name their ideal teacher from a school drama. Not too surprisingly, Yukie Nakama's character of Yankumi in "Gokusen" was the most popular.

Kinpachi Sakamoto of the long-running "3 Nen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei" (played by Tetsuya Takeda) ranked 2nd. He was followed by Eikichi Onizuka of "GTO" (Takashi Sorimachi), Koichi Kawato of "ROOKIES" (Ryuta Sato), and Kenji Sakuragi in "Dragon Zakura" (Hiroshi Abe).

Yutaka Mizutani was #6 for his role as Kodai Kitano in the '70s series "Necchu Jidai." One of his namesakes, actor Yutaka Takenouchi, ranked right behind him as Masaya Yoshimori in "Yankee Bokou ni Kaeru."

Maya Akutsu, played by Yuki Amami in "The Queen's Classroom," was #8. Gansuke Hiraizumi from "Minikui Ahiru no Ko" (Goro Kishitani) came in at #9, and Sentaro Sakuragi of "Gakko no Sensei" (Tsuyoshi Domoto) completed the list at #10.

Veteran actor Ken Watanabe is taking on the role of movie director. In an interview with Sports Nippon, he said he is currently working on the script, though the plot details and even the genre are still being kept secret. He commented that he has various acting gigs for the rest of this year, so he won't be able to devote himself to directing until 2009.

While working on the 2006 movie "Letters From Iwo Jima" (directed by Clint Eastwood), Watanabe had mentioned that he had become interested in directing. That year, he also gained experience behind the scenes as the executive producer for "Memories of Tomorrow," which he starred in.

While fans await more details of his directorial debut, some information has been released about his role in Mikael Hafstrom's next movie, "Shanghai." Watanabe just returned from shooting some scenes in London, though filming will continue in various locations at least until August, when the last scene is shot in Thailand.

The movie is set before the attack on Pearl Harbor and stars John Cusack as an American who returns to a Japanese-occupied Shanghai. He discovers that his friend has been killed, and in the course of investigating the death, he uncovers a government conspiracy. It has now been revealed that Watanabe's character is a mysterious spy for the Japanese navy, said to be a villain in the story.