An online prank show in Serbia went straight to the top for their latest "Mission Impossible" gag, targeting the country's Prime Minister, Ivica Dačić.

Here's a trailer for Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol ("ghost protocol" is the word for "four" in video game). It looks just like the last Mission: Impossible, so... awesome!

[Tom Cruise does his own stunts on the Prague set of "Mission: Impossible 4." Image via Pacific Coast News. Click to enlarge.]

[Tom Cruise films Mission: Impossible IV in Prague. (Pic by Splash News)]

The Dubai hit squad that whacked a Hamas leader in Dubai was only denied a clean kill by the age of ubiquitous cameras and high-tech passports, according to this Atlantic story. And the danger for future assassins? Twitter?

• The New York Times Co. actually turned a profit in 2009. Glory be! [NYT]
• Did you read (or hear about) Playboy's new interview with John Mayer, the one in which he managed to make himself look like even more of an idiot? Mayer's been busy today apologizing for his comments, not surprisingly.
• American Idol's ratings were up big last night. It's the Ellen effect. [TVG]
• Get ready to see ads on magazine covers; it's so happening. [AdAge]
• Another symptom of the times: While Gourmet didn't survive the great magazine meltdown, Food Network Magazine continues to be a big hit. [NYP]
• Since MTV no longer has any connection to music whatsoever, it's changed its logo. The "music television" bit is gone. And the logo has put on weight. [BC]
• The next Spider Man installment—coming July 3, 2012, just in case you happen to have your calendar in front of you—will be in 3D. Naturally. [THR]
• Speaking of things in the far-off future, Tom Cruise has signed on to star in Mission Impossible IV (coming May '11!). And in what will undoubtedly come as the best news you'll hear all week, Celine Dion returns to Las Vegas in '11.

News of the entertainment world continues apace this dreary near-afternoon. Real Housewives reaches a milestone, Tom Cruise reaches an impasse, and Sigourney Weaver just can't stay the fuck away from aliens, no matter what she does.

Ah, the buzz cut: that sometimes-risky, sometimes-successful ‘do usually sported by male celebrities when it's required for a role in a military/secret agent/futuristic film or because they need a quick way to change their public image. But no matter what their reasons are for taking the razor to the scalp, the look has roughly a 50/50 chance of working. Two of the most recent stars to shave it all off are Jennifer Aniston arm candy John Mayer and new member of the Movie Press-Generating Lawbreakers’ Club Josh Brolin, and while Mayer irritatingly manages to pull the look off despite his big head ego, Brolin’s close cut reveals a bit too much skin. Which immediately made us reminisce on buzz cuts of the past, both the bad (Hey, Jude), the good (pre-Scientology Tommy C.), and the very ugly (Attack Of The Killer Umbrella-Bearers):

Paramount head Brad Grey stayed mostly tight-lipped during the tense period following the femur-shattering kick-in-the-pants Sumner Redstone delivered to Tom Cruise on his way out of the Viacom family doors. Radar now reports that Grey might have been relieved to see Cruise go, especially after the deadlocked negotiations for his Mission Impossible 3 salary led to an after-hours run-in with a pack of navy-blazered Scientology goons, fists lightly pounding into their palms as they attempted to get shorty to see the light:

There's something quaintly old school about Hollywood PR fluff machine Entertainment Tonight, whose "reporters" accept every word that tumbles from the mouths of their A-list fixations as celebrity gospel. They recently sent Jann Carl (cloned, we think, off a sample taken from Mary Hart's right ankle) to interview Tom Cruise about Mission: Impossible 3. The result was yet another Cruise-controlled conversation about the diminutive daredevil's fearless stunt work ("You prepare and you prepare, and even if things go wrong, you prepare so that it won't go that wrong. But I do feel the adrenaline!") But it was a bonus video with a nervous-seeming M:i:III director J.J. Abrams, made available on the ET website, that revealed perhaps a more candid glimpse at what's involved in directing a Tom Cruise vehicle. A partial transcript:

Tom Cruise is trying out this Method acting stuff, and it's Ethan Hunt, his incredibly uptight character in Mission: Impossible 3 who needs his own porta-shitter, not Cruise. Hunt really hates to be interrupted when he's settled in to a private "auditing session" between takes—a knock on the door makes him seize up, resulting in costly delays for the entire production.

Perhaps the only thing creepier than one Tom Cruise is three well-dressed guys who look and sound like the genuine article hanging out together. If our operative hadn't already been snooping around the Mission: Impossible 3 set at Paramount, he might have fled for his life, convinced that the invasion was finally nigh. Instead, we get this report: