Stardust Promotion intending to terminate Sawajiri Erika's contract?

Stardust Promotion is said to be in negotiations with Sawajiri Erika to terminate her contract. Sawajiri has been spending most of her time overseas ever since she got married to Takashiro Takeshi in January this year. Although it was rumoured that she is due to appear in a movie soon, Stardust's move suggests that this might be a fatal blow to Sawajiri's waning career prospects.

According to insiders, Stardust has started negotiations with related parties since the middle of Sep to discuss the issue of terminating Sawajiri's contract. There was talk of her being involved in a new movie and her contract is still in effect. However, Stardust's move is said to be in response to a major violation of the contract by Sawajiri. With regards to this, Stardust has declined comment at the moment.

Sawajiri has been spending the past 8 months after her marriage in England and Spain with the aim of studying languages and computer graphics. She returned to Japan briefly in July to watch the solar eclipse at Amami Island and came back permanently this month, apparently to start working again as an actress.

There may be a couple of reasons as to why Stardust is said to be terminating Sawajiri's contract. There are rumours going around that she may be into drugs as she was reported to have been using it with her husband when they were in Europe especially since they were caught visiting Ibiza frequently. Ibiza is said to be famous for its drug parties. In addition, she was said to be spotted at the same event in Amami which Sakai Noriko and her husband also attended.

Another offence could be her riding of an automatic bicycle in Amami when she should have applied for a license before doing so. The police there had questioned her about this case. Another issue could also be Sawajiri not informing her agency when she signed a contract with a fashion brand to appear in their advertisements.

Sawajiri made her debut as a magazine model and switched to being an actress in 2003. In 2005, she won many newcomer awards for her movie, "Pacchigi!". Since then, she had been active in showbiz, acting in many popular dramas and movies. However, her headstrong character also earned her the nickname of "Erika-sama" and that finally got her into big trouble in Sep 07. Sawajiri put on a defiant and rude attitude during the first-day screening event of her movie, "Closed Note" which led to her being flamed by the public to the extent of her apologizing on TV soon after. She has not appeared in any movie or drama since then.

Source: Sports Hochi

In another report from Sponichi, Stardust is said to have given its marching orders to Sawajiri. However, her husband Takashiro is said to be unhappy about the reasons given for firing his wife and has engaged a lawyer to negotiate with the agency.

Sawajiri was officially informed of the decision to fire her when she visited Stardust early this week. However, her husband refuses to accept the reasons for firing her. Sawajiri has been involved in numerous problems over the past few years and they are seen to be sufficient reasons as to why Stardust is resorting to this drastic measure.

The traffic offence committed in Amami Island was exposed when TV crew exposed Sawajiri for riding an automatic bicycle there without a license and a helmet. It was later revealed that Takashiro brought this along with him in a bid to get Sawajiri to promote this product through her usage. However, Takashiro had never sought Stardust's permission prior to this. Sawajiri's battered image suffered a further dent because of the questioning by the local police with regards to the traffic offence.

Another thing happened in New York when the couple flew there on 15 February, a month after their wedding on 19 January. Sawajiri was decked in merchandise from a famous fashion brand in the US, apparently to serve as a living advertisement for the brand. It was said that Takashiro was asked by the PR department of that brand to get his wife to wear these things. Again, Stardust was not consulted beforehand.

Ever since the scandal in Sep 07, Sawajiri was constantly in uncontactable mode and did things as she wished which was a big headache to the agency. Stardust was not even informed beforehand when she got married to Takashiro. At this time where agencies are gearing up to improve their management control and awareness of their artistes' private lives after the Sakai Noriko and Oshio Manabu scandals, Stardust is said to be worried about Sawajiri creating further trouble thus leading to this decision.

Negotiations between both sides are said to be going nowhere so it is highly likely that Sawajiri will work independently with her husband's company providig support. Early this month, Takashiro's blog mentioned that the autumn is going to be a time of change thus lending more credibility to this speculation.