Last Monday was a pretty busy day for Tokyo's entertainment reporters. At 11 a.m. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, fresh from spending Thanksgiving in Pakistan, held a press conference in Shinjuku to promote their movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; and then at 2 p.m. across town at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya, the press conference for "Sayuri," Hollywood's blockbuster version of Arthur Golden's international best seller "Memoirs of a Geisha," began with seven members of the all-star Asian cast and director Rob Marshall in attendance.

Big coverage of both events was guaranteed given the star power on hand, but one wonders what would have happened if Kiefer Sutherland's press conference, which took place Nov. 24, had somehow been scheduled at the same time as either of the aforementioned events. Though it sounds like a long shot given Sutherland's B-movie status, I might have put my money on more reporters showing up to see him. Sutherland was making his first trip to Japan to promote the DVD box set of Season 4 of the hit American TV series "24," in which he plays U.S. counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer. As an action figure, Bauer rivals anyone of comparable bulletproof heroism at the moment in terms of name-recognition.

Japan, in fact, has become such a huge market for the show that the box set was released here more than a week before it goes on sale in the United States, which may be a first for any major American movie or TV production. In addition, Sutherland is currently appearing as his action alter-ego in an advertising campaign for Calorie Mate, a sugar-and-margarine concoction that supplies instant energy for people who don't have time for meals. Since one of the jokes about "24" is that Jack Bauer is too busy saving the world to eat, he fits the image perfectly. In one TV spot, he saves the Tokyo Metropolitan Government while munching on a Calorie Mate bar. Carlos Bernard, another actor in the series, came to Japan in early November to do his own promotion, which included an appearance on a comedy show where he spoofed his character Tony Almeida.