Ed McMahon may lose home

People

Ed McMahon, who for decades appeared as Johnny Carson's sidekick on "The Tonight Show," is fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills, Calif., home, according to published reports. The former "Star Search" host was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans when a unit of Countrywide Financial filed a default notice Feb. 28, The Wall Street Journal reported. McMahon, 85, has been unable to work as a pitchman since he broke his neck 18 months ago, said his spokesman, Howard Bragman. The six-bedroom, five-bath home overlooking Mulholland Drive is listed for sale at $6.25 million and has been on the market two years.

"X-Files" star is expecting

Gillian Anderson and her boyfriend, Mark Griffiths, are expecting their second child this fall, her manager said Wednesday. The "X-Files" actress and the businessman have an 18-month-old son, Oscar. Anderson, 39, also has a daughter, Piper, 13, with ex-husband Clyde Klotz. Anderson's next big production: "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," is due in theaters in July.

Sold!

High expectations

The writing desk and chair Charles Dickens used to write "Great Expectations" was sold to Irish millionaire Tom Higgins for just over $850,000 at Christie's auction house on Wednesday. Higgins, who runs a company that provides live tarot-card readings over the Internet, said he may write letters at the desk. The proceeds will go to the Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London, whose founder was a close friend of Dickens.

Oops

Jesus stolen by mistake?

Thieves seeking copper to sell as scrap may have stolen an 8-foot statue of Jesus Christ off a cross in Detroit. Problem is, it's made of plaster. The Rev. Barry Randolph said the statue at the Church of the Messiah is green and looks like copper. A parishioner noticed the statue missing recently. Police Department spokesman James Tate said it was doubtful thieves had mistaken the plaster statue for copper. "People who steal copper know what copper is and what it feels like," he said.

Found!

Lighthouse went West

Historians for decades thought the 30-foot-tall lighthouse that once overlooked Wellfleet Harbor, Mass., had been taken down and destroyed in 1925. Turns out, it had just been moved to the California coast. The fate of the cast-iron tower was uncovered last year by lighthouse researchers and reported by Colleen MacNeney in this month's edition of Lighthouse Digest. Wellfleet historian Helen Purcell said the discovery of the lighthouse at Point Montara south of San Francisco was a shock. MacNeney said she discovered correspondence that proved that the lighthouse, first erected in 1881 and now used as a navigational aid and a hostel, had been moved by the Coast Guard.

Monet not missing now

Police in Marseille, France, on Wednesday recovered a Monet landscape and three other paintings worth about $1.55 million that were stolen by masked gunmen from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice on the French Riviera last August, judicial officials said. Police, who had tracked 10 people for weeks, moved in as suspects were planning a sale of the art, discovered in a parked utility vehicle.

Upbeat

New tunes at West Point

The U.S. Military Academy will honor its daughters as well as its sons in two of its beloved songs. Gender-neutral lyrics were incorporated into West Point's alma mater and "The Corps," replacing lines such as "The men of the Corps" with "The ranks of the Corps." West Point officials made the change after attending funerals for female graduates killed in combat and listening to the line "Guide us, thy sons" being sung. The new lyrics read, "Guide us, thine own."

Today in History

1933: The United States went off the gold standard.

1967: War erupted in the Mideast as Israel raided military aircraft parked on the ground in Egypt; Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.

1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.

1981: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five gay men in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS.

Today's Birthdays

Broadcast journalist Bill Moyers, 74. Rock musician Fred Stone (Sly and the Family Stone), 62. Jazz musician Kenny G, 52. Actor Ron Livingston, 41. Singer Brian McKnight, 39. Actor Mark Wahlberg, 37.

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