Sad News: Ai Iijima Found Dead in Possible Suicide - 飯島愛さんが死亡、自殺か

I just heard from a Japanese friend that well known Japanese 'Tarento' (talent)  personality Iijima Ai ( 飯島愛) was found dead in her apartment in Tokyo of an apparent suicide.

Japanese news article:

飯島愛さんが死亡、自殺か　都内の自宅マンション (Iijima Ai Dead of Suicide in Her Tokyo Apartment)

Now there's an AP article:

Japanese porn actress-turned-AIDS activist found deadIts quite sad,  she definitely had a very

interestinglife - full of difficulties, but also of personal triumphs.  For those who aren't familiar with her, she was one of the top actresses in Japan's adult industry in the early 90s and managed to break into the mainstream through writing about her trying life experiences. She became a fixture on TV panel shows that are popular in Japan until retiring last year with rumored health problems.

The amazing thing to me is that Wikipedia (the English version!)  was updated within a few hours of the news!

at 6:00 pm Tokyo Time it says this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Iijima#Death

Death

At 3:30 p.m. on December 24, 2008, Iijima was found dead in her Tokyo apartment. [13 ] Police are currently investigating her death. [14 ] Wow...   so fast!  Wikipedia is turning into a primary news source almost.  The other day I was reading Wikipedia pages about Star Trek while watching STTNG and I was shocked to find out that Majel Barrett had died that very day.

Anyway,  back to Iijima Ai - very sad news.   I've heard a lot of Korean celebrities have been turning to suicide lately. I hope this fad is not catching on in Japan.    I'm sure the fact that tomorrow is Christmas is not completely unrelated to Iijima-san's dealth. :-(

Update 1: A few retro photos of Ai Iijima (飯島愛) from back in the day:

Update 2: The day after the news broke I was surprised to see Hong Kong's Apple Daily running this as their main headline on the front page:

            Text translates approximately to: 'Generation's AV Queen Found Dead at Home - Iijima Ai's Mysterious Death' ('一代AV天后陳屍香閨飯島愛離奇死') The extensive article can be found here:

http://appledaily.atnext.com/template/apple/artmain.cfm?issid=20081225&secid=4104&subsecid=11866&art_id=12013871

The text is somewhat interesting,  the introduction says:

 "Iijima Ai,  a name that any male in their 30s can not forget, with an angelic face and a devilish figure, star of numerous adult films,  later broke barriers by becoming the first AV actress to break into the [mainstream] artist world." tags:  Iijima Ai Suicide,  Ai Iijima Suicide,  飯島愛, 自殺, Tokyo, JAV,  JAV Idol Death, Japan Adult Star,  Japanese Adult Idol,  Talent,  タレント AV天后 陳屍香閨 飯島愛離奇死