As announced last month, girl groups AKB48 and Idoling!!! are collaborating for an idol audition project known as "Push★1," taking place on January 31. On Friday, the event's official website revealed the participating members and announced their first single.

Created by producer Yasushi Akimoto, the group AKB Idoling!!! consists of 16 members, 8 from each of the two original units. The AKB48 members are:

• Tomomi Itano
• Mai Oshima
• Yuko Oshima
• Erena Ono
• Tomomi Kasai
• Haruna Kojima
• Atsuko Maeda
• Jurina Matsui (SKE48)

The Idoling!!! members are:

• Mai Endo
• Erika Tonooka
• Erika Yazawa
• Rurika Yokoyama
• Hitomi Sakai
• Nao Asahi
• Ami Kikuchi
• Hitomi Miyake

The combined 16-girl group will release their first single, "Chuu Shiyou Ze!," on April 1 through Pony Canyon. The song will be premiered on stage at the "Push★1" event.

The event's website also currently has information on 14 of the 16 idols who are participating in the audition, including Marie Sukegawa and Yukiko Hachisuka.

After having AAA's Takahiro Nishijima star in last year's "Ai no Mukidashi," director Sion Sono has once again cast a popular music artist as the lead in a movie. Sono's next film is tentatively titled "Chichi to Ko no Kizuna," and it will feature EXILE's AKIRA in his first starring role on the big screen.

The film portrays the bond between an ordinary salaryman (AKIRA) and his father who is dying of cancer. AKIRA's previous acting experience includes minor roles in the TV series "Around 40" and the movie "Hana Yori Dango Final."

As a tie-in with his new drama series "Uta no Oniisan," Arashi's Satoshi Ohno will be releasing his first solo single. Titled "Kumorinochi, Kaisei," the song is being used as the show's theme, and it will be released under the name of his character, Kenta Yano.

The tune is scheduled for release on March 4 as a double A-side with Arashi's 25th single, "Believe."

Adult star Sora Aoi and comedian Jiro Hachimitsu (of the duo Tokyo Dynamite) have broken up. Both of them revealed the news on their own blogs. The two had been dating since at least December 2006, when their relationship was first discovered by FRIDAY magazine.

Popular enka singer Jero has taken on his first acting role, it was learned on Thursday. He is part of the cast of Hideaki Hosono's "Donju," which is based on a comedy play by Kankuro Kudo.

The movie stars Tadanobu Asano as a dim-witted writer named Dekoyan who becomes the target of multiple murder attempts by his friends, but he seems unable to die due to his thickheadedness. The supporting cast features Kazuki Kitamura, Yoko Maki, and Yusuke Santamaria.

Jero was apparently offered the part last summer, while he was still in the midst of his rise to fame. In the movie, he plays Akira, an unemployed thug who serves as an underling to Kitamura's character. He makes several appearances during the film, doing odd jobs such as door-to-door sales and working for a ramen shop.

Filming has already wrapped up, and the movie is slated for release in May. Jero also provided an insert song called "Rurou no Machi," which will appear on his first album "Yakusoku," out on February 25.

"Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" opens in Japan on February 28. The dub's voice cast has now been revealed, and teen actress Riisa Naka will be voicing the character of Chun-Li, played by Kristin Kreuk.

Naka previously voiced the lead role in the 2006 animated film "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo."

Comedy duo Chihara Kyodai will also be participating in the Japanese dub, though this will be their first time doing voice acting.

Anime News Network has picked up on official confirmation that the live-action "Cowboy Bebop" film is moving forward. Sunrise, the animation studio responsible for the original anime, is working with 20th Century Fox and 3 Arts Entertainment to develop the movie.

As previously reported, producer Erwin Stoff is attached to the project. Actor Keanu Reeves, who worked with Stoff in "A Scanner Darkly" and "The Matrix," has signed on to star as Spike Spiegel.