Cruise accepts another ‘Mission: Impossible’

Los Angeles — Tom Cruise is starring in another impossible mission.

Paramount Pictures announced Tuesday that Cruise will be back in front of the camera for “Mission: Impossible IV,” due in theaters over Memorial Day weekend in 2011.

Cruise and “Mission: Impossible III” director J.J. Abrams previously agreed to produce a fourth movie in the action franchise. But it had not been known if Cruise would star again.

Abrams will stick to producing this time, with the search on for a director to shoot the new installment. Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec are writing the script, based on a story idea from Cruise and Abrams.

Rapper’s sentencing put off for dental surgery

New York — After rap star Lil Wayne spent months bidding farewell to his fans and his freedom, what loomed for him Tuesday was a dental chair, not a house of detention.

His sentencing in a weapons case was postponed so he could have dental surgery before going to jail.

Lil Wayne, one of music’s biggest sellers and rap’s hottest stars, is now due to be sentenced on March 2. His plea deal calls for a one-year term in a city jail, though good behavior could shave that to about eight months.

The rapper — who once told TV interviewer Jimmy Kimmel that his jewel-encrusted teeth had cost him $150,000 — said nothing at a brief court session. He left in a black SUV, flanked by fellow rapper Birdman and others.

Defense lawyer Stacey Richman said Lil Wayne was headed home to Miami for dental work Friday. She declined to specify his malady.