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Ed McMahon, the longtime sidekick to television star Johnny Carson, faces the possible loss of his Beverly Hills home to a foreclosure action initiated by a unit of Countrywide Financial Corp. Howard Bragman, a spokesman for Mr. McMahon, said late Tuesday that his client is having “very fruitful discussions” with the lender and hopes to find a resolution. It isn’t clear whether that would allow the 85-year-old Mr. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, to remain in the six-bedroom home. A Countrywide spokeswoman said the lender couldn’t comment in such cases “due to privacy issues.”
Mr. McMahon, a jovial fixture of American television for decades, is one of the most prominent people caught up in a wave of mortgage defaults that has devastated low-income areas, suburbia and even a few posh gated communities, such as the one where the McMahons live. U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, a California Democrat, recently lost a home in Sacramento to a foreclosure. Rep. Richardson didn’t respond to requests for comment.