Donald Trump To Buy Ed McMahon's House

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Donald Trump will soon be Ed McMahon's landlord. Trump announced Thursday he would save the television personality's Beverly Hills mansion from foreclosure by buying it for an undisclosed amount and leasing it to McMahon.

The developer told the Los Angeles Times he doesn't know McMahon personally, but acted out of compassion because helping out "would be an honor."

McMahon, 85, who was Johnny Carson's sidekick on the "Tonight" show for three decades, has not worked for about 18 months because of a neck injury. He defaulted on $4.8 million in mortgage loans with Countrywide Financial Corp.

McMahon's spokesman, Howard Bragman, told The Associated Press that paperwork on the sale had not been completed but that McMahon was "very optimistic" the deal would go through.

"When I was at the Wharton School of Business I'd watch him every night," Trump told the Times. "How could this happen?"

McMahon bought the six-bedroom, five-bathroom, 7,000-square-foot house in January 1990. The home was listed at $4.6 million last weekend _ down from a peak price of $7 million.

Comments

[joshrox]

Hey Donald, it certainly would be nice if you could help the average "Joes". Just imagine how many average "Joes" foreclosures could be helped by 4.1 million.

Give me a break, what a friggin' joke.

[layman]

Why the hell do you need 7000 square feet ?

Why the hell do you need six rooms and 5 bath rooms ?
You can only use one at a time ?

Live within your means !

[hjo4]

Ed is a scammer, he has money and only wants more for his greedy family members. But The Donald never does something for nothing, this sounds to good to be true.I didn't think The Donald could be Murphyed so easily, especially by an old con man like Ed McMahon.

[rich5861]

Ed Mc is an icon in America. I for one am glad Trump is helping him. Sure it makes good business sense and why not? Classy move on Trumps part and in the end, he'll come out. By the way, he gives a heck of a lot of money to charity and doesn't brag about that. He has great kids and is one of the great comeback stories of our generation. Why people are so hateful toward him, I don't know.

Some of these comments show just how self centered people are. Way to go Mr. Trump.

I can't wait for the next "Apprentice".

[Heavy]

In the form of a publishers clearing house grand prize.

[KOisGod]

The donald only does deals if he can make money in the end. He's just another merchant. I'm sure he looks at Ed, figures he can help him, he'll kick in a few, and by then the market will climb, sell the house. Bingo, the donald looked at the numbers and shook Ed's hand.

Done deal.

[AgathaX]

So, Donald Trump can make the last years of an American icon a bit more comfortable at little or no (ultimate) expense to himself. Sounds like a win, win.

[marlainWA]

thats how i feel win win...he can make nice, help someone out and make a profit at the same time in the future. Don wouldn't do it otherwise.

[KOisGod]

I didn't say it was bad, just calling it from where I sit. I know the merchant mentality, been there, done that.

[mabinog]

Maybe the Donald would pop for covering my student loans.

[Deken]

It sounds so harsh, but I'm not the least bit impressed with any of this.

Trump, who is the picture of opportunism, recently gloated over his property "flipping" on Letterman, pocketing about $31 million practically overnight. I wonder how much of that easy profit went to the truly needy.

And Ed McMahon made untold millions for being little more than a tree stump on Carson's show, and frittered it away over the years. How in the world can one man be so impeccably dumb?

He's 85. How many 85-year-olds do you know who "have not worked for about 18 months"? Answer: Just about all of them.

[mellene]

That's a good and decent thing for Trump to do--kudos DT

[Hoelder]

Where was Donald Trump when I have been in financial distress? The rich for the rich, the poor go to hell. When money talks, the poor will be silenced.

[AtlantaBill]

Great humane act on the part of The Donald. When I'm at one of your casinos in the future I'll play quarters in the slots rather than those pennies.

[GeoLee]

Yeah, participate in the reverse Robin Hood gig.

[jmpurser]

Boy, the Donald came THIS CLOSE to doing the classy thing here! But in the end it was just a multimillionaire who made most of his money on real estate saving another millionaire from homelessness by guying his grossly over priced multimillion dollar house.

How many REAL homeless people could The Donald have spared with the same money?

Yep. THIS CLOSE to actually doing the classy thing.

[TovSquirrel]

Missed it by that much!

[MissingAmerica]

I'll never think bad things about Donald Trump again. What a wonderful thing to do for a man who has worked hard his entire life.

[letsgetsmart]

Nooooooooooo. Stay home Don and let this guy get approached by a tell all author so we can get a juicy book out there. Oh, wait a minute, maybe that is why he is stepping forward with the cash. Considering that Don doesn't have a nice bone in his body, you must have quite the laundry list of things to tell. So who doesn't want a book deal? You know they would step up with some up front big cash.

[flatus]

How is it possible that Ed is not rolling in dough?

[veteran1964]

He was married quite a few times and alimony and child support took a great amount of his earnings away. Plus he wasted a lot of money throughout his career and then his neck injury kept him from working. BUY BIG LOSE BIG.

[DixieMelody]

He made an obscene amount of money in his "career" based on no obvious talent whatsoever.

NBC had no use for him when Johnny Carson took over The Tonight Show, but Johnny said it was a deal breaker if he couldn't bring his announcer (Ed) with him at an "acceptable" salary.

So Johnny and now The Donald have kept his head above water financially.