We first heard about this in shadowy rumors at the Sony party at E3, but GSW co-editor Brandon has attempted to piece it together a little better for his weblog Insert Credit - an odd E3-related cultural semi-accident from the Japanese headquartered Hudson Entertainment.

As Brandon explains: "You may not know this, but Hudson had a bit of an interesting tactic for E3. They hired a group of models, all of whom would be available at any time for Hudson's partners, and certain editors-in-chief of important publications. Those involved were able to choose a girl based on pictures sent via mail. I'm told that most refused."

The post continues: "Now, this is a rather common practice in Japan, though it's not really out in the open. In Japan, businesses will hire escorts for their big clients, if ever they do business deals in a club or something similar - you've probably seen it in movies. Then the clients can negotiate with those escorts afterwards, with the obvious intentions. But here, the official word [at E3] is that the girls weren't supposed to be escorts, or arm candy, so much as kind of personal assistants - get you coffee, translate where necessary, things like that."

The full story isn't quite there, but it's noted: "Of course, they wouldn't send me the list of girls and their photos, but I'm pretty sure [the Hudson website's] features page [lists them]... complete with mini interviews and personal data: Music Plus TV hostess Yoi Tanabe, horror film actress Sharon Senina, eastwest magazine hopeful Chyna Chuu, and PhD student Theia Monera."

[So, the story isn't completely confirmed, and it's worth mentioning again that the above folks, if they're the same ones presented by Hudson pre-show, were hired to help out as assistants, nothing more. But it's all a bit of a cultural logjam, eh?]