Mixing apples and oranges: bad idea. But what happens when you combine a Big Apple icon and a perennial second banana?

You get Donald Trump as Ed McMahon's landlord.

The Donald announced Thursday that he would save Mr. McMahon's Beverly Hills mansion from foreclosure by buying it for an undisclosed sum and leasing it back to him. The developer said he doesn't know Mr. McMahon personally but acted out of compassion because helping out "would be an honor."

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

The Associated Press