A "fallen angel" porn starlet -- whose biggest claim to fame was an online assault brought on after threatening to expose celebrities she said she'd slept with -- has tragically become one of the growing number of Japanese taking their lives through toxic hydrogen sulfide inhalation, Flash (5/13-20) says.

Miyuki Asao took her own life in an apartment in Tokyo's Toshima-ku on April 18, just months after she appeared in the tabloid media claiming to have slept with at least 50 well-known celebrities, most of them comedians.

Indeed, the January reports on Asao's claims featured her photo together with a well-known, married comedian with whom she was allegedly conducting an extra-marital affair.

"She never made it a secret that she fancied famous comedians, and had actually had relationships with several of them. A lot of the comedians who saw reports of her about to make her debut in the adult movie world would have been relieved to see their names weren't mentioned alongside hers," an insider from a production company tells Flash.

Asao's entry into the Japanese netherworld followed a tragic path. She was the daughter of wealthy parents and spent her schooldays at the extremely posh Gakushuin, the same alma mater as members of the Imperial Family. She carried an air of regality about her uncommon in the adult movie business.

"She was a really natural, straight-forward girl who never did any of the brown-nosing a lot in this industry go in for," a member of an adult movie production company says.

Asao's fall began in her teens when her parents divorced. In shock at the split, her grades tumbled and she found herself out of Gakushuin, working in the sex business and developing a habit of slashing her wrists.

She worked for a time at a talent agency, but gave it up within a year and was all set to become a star in flesh flicks. She had started making a name for herself in the direct-to-video adult movie market and appeared to be getting her life back on track. But appearances can be deceiving, as one of Asao's friend's notes.

"She told me that the celebrities she was seeing were only playing around with her and wouldn't take her seriously. The celebrities knew about her reputation for going after comedians and they were starting to avoid her," the pal says.

It seems the final straw for Asao came when her threat to kiss-and-tell incurred the wrath of the Ni-Channelers, the name given to users of the world's largest online forum Ni-Chaneru.

"Someone posted her address online and she had to move to a new place in a rush. The online assault from fans of the celebrities she could have exposed was absolutely intense," Asao's friend tells Flash. "She was a kind-hearted soul. She was the type that if someone wrote a nice message on her blog, she'd copy it down and carry it around with her all the time. She must have been absolutely shattered at what was going on." (By Ryann Connell)