Time for Lil Wayne to grow up

In the midst of a career surge that has made him one of rap’s biggest stars, Lil Wayne is bracing for a year behind bars after pleading guilty Thursday in a two-year-old gun case.

The glum rapper said little as he admitted illegally having a loaded gun on his tour bus in 2007, moving to end a case that had churned along as he collected Grammys and gold records.

He’s expected to get a year in jail at his February sentencing.

The plea, which came as he boasted the country’s No. 1 pop song (“Down”), makes Lil Wayne, 27, the latest in a long line of chart-topping rappers to face incarceration.

He’s also scheduled for trial in Arizona in March on felony drug possession and weapons charges stemming from a January 2008 arrest at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

A Travolta retrial

A Bahamas judge has ordered a mistrial in the case of an alleged extortion attempt against John Travolta after a politician announced one of the defendants would be freed, giving the appearance of an improper leak from the jury room.

Ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne and his attorney, politician Pleasant Bridgewater, are accused of demanding $25 million from Travolta to keep them from releasing private information about the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett, at the family vacation home in Grand Bahama on Jan. 2.

Why are you here?

First lady Michelle Obama is going to be serving up answers on “The Jay Leno Show” tonight.

Via satellite, Obama is set to respond to 10 “rapid-fire questions” in one of Leno’s regular comedy bits.

The birthday bunch

Director Ang Lee is 55. Singer “Weird Al” Yankovic is 50. Actor Ryan Reynolds is 33. Actress Masiela Lusha (“George Lopez”) is 24.