Japanese Singer Matsuda Seiko Lands Role on Fox TV’s Bones
February 5, 2010
TOKYO—Veteran Japanese singer/actress Matsuda Seiko, 48, has landed a role on the popular U.S. drama series Bones, entertainment media are reporting here. She plays the part of a Japanese journalist in the new season of the Fox show, set to air beginning in April.
A superstar of the Japanese showbiz world, Matsuda parlayed her “girl next door” image into 24 consecutive No. 1 singles on the Japanese charts during the 1980s. Her career has also been marked by scandalous headlines in the notorious Japanese tabloids for the past three decades.
Along with her stardom, Matsuda is also known for her failed marriages and affairs with younger, foreign men, including a lengthy tryst with American actor Jeff Nichols, 32, and an adulterous relationship with dancer Alan Reed, who filed an unsuccessful $350,000 sexual harassment suit against Matsuda in 1998, after working as a dancer on one of her musical tours. Matsuda was also briefly wed to an American dentist.
Romance aside, Matsuda’s previous attempts to crossover into the U.S. music and movie industries have failed, up to now. Born Kamachi Noriko in a small town in southern Japan, she filmed her Bones appearance last month in Los Angeles. She follows in the footsteps of other Japanese actors who have recently appeared in U.S. TV dramas, such as Sanada Hiroyuki (Lost) and Takeuchi Yuko (Flash Forward).
- The Skinny on Seiko Matsuda, Nippop
