Sakurai Sho smokes….and that is already a scandal?

And now (after ranting about blogger burn out), for the latest mindless scandal circulating the world of J-entertainment, as reported by my source for all-things JPop, Tokyo Hive: Arashi’s Sakurai Sho is a Heavy Smoker?

Arashi’s resident intellectual Sakurai Sho is currently caught in the eye of a scandal after a Hokkaido hotel employee tweeted that she found cigarette butts on Sho-kun’s room. And oh, the employee also bragged that she “hshs” (sniffed, apparently) Sho-kun’s used towel.

Okay, I’d like to enunciate a few thoughts:

1. First, when are these close-minded people ever realize that Sho Sakurai and the rest of Arashi are JAPANESE POP IDOLS and not SAINTS. There are glaring difference between the two, aint it? And since they are not saints, we can all expect them to smoke, drink and get wasted, have girlfriends, have sex and maybe one day (happily) get married. It always frustrates me when stupid things such as “Arashi member caught smoking” is reported as if they’re really news. Well, maybe because they are entertainment money-makers. But come on, they are also human beings who deserve the right to have their pack (or two) of ciggies. After all, they wear sparkly costumes — they DESERVE the cancer-stick. (Note also that I am also strictly against smoking, but it’s their lungs we’re talking about here, not mine. And since we are not also related, it’s not my business to tell them to stop smoking. They’ve been working since they were thirteen, they deserve their little vices)

2. Arashi’s popularity will not collapse overnight just because they smoke. Or drink. Or boink. — Arashi fans are intelligent human beings who know their idols are also normal human beings who maintain private lives outside being an idol. People actually respect this. Well, except for the creepy few who idol-worship these five boys and actually believe that they’ve decided straight from the sparkly heavens and thus, is without vice nor sin nor frailties.

3. The real news here is that creepy office employee. In fact, this piece of information should have been reported as: “Arashi’s Sakurai Sho’s privacy violated by female hotel employee” — First, who the hell sniffs a person’s USED towel. Are you even sure that it was Sho who freaking used the towel? And well, even if it is Sho why would you sniff something that he (I assume) used to wipe EVERY PART of his body. Unless you are sick or perverted, that is something that no sane woman would do. Yes, I mean that — even if we are talking about Jun Matsumoto and I am the hotel employee! Girl, sniffing a used towel is just plain nasty. Second, laying your head on a “pillow that you assumed to have been used by Sakurai” reeks of psychotic tendencies.Please cue the Psycho theme song here. Third, the girl has clearly violated that terms of her employment by tweeting about a guest’s personal habits inside his rented room. Whatever happened to privacy rights?

It is with incidents (and news such as these) that I take pity of Sho and the rest of Arashi for being so effing famous that they get subjected to mindless scandals and perverted fans.