Sad news about the death of Ed McMahon today, a TV icon who represented a disappearing breed—of ubiquitous, up-for-anything TV personality, of a colloquial ease with the camera that transcended any silly show he found himself on.

Matt Lauer just reported on the Today Show that former Johnny Carson sidekick and TV host Ed McMahon passed away last night at the age of 86. No word is currently available on the cause of death. [MSNBC]

• It looks the end of the line for Fox News anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle and husband Eric Villency, the heir to a furniture store chain founded by his grandfather and occasional TV presence. It's Guilfoyle's second high-profile break-up. Her first husband was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. [P6]
• Sean Avery and model Hilary Rhoda were spotted "getting cozy" the other night. [P6]
• Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show for more than three decades, has died at 86. [NYT, People]

• Madonna's adoption appeal was "adjourned indefinitely" by the chief justice of Malawi's Supreme Court yesterday. Fair enough. After all, would you let a woman dressed like this adopt your child? [Reuters]
• Gisele Bundchen was seen leaving an OB/GYN's office yesterday with Tom Brady, which may mean she's pregnant, or may mean nothing at all. [P6]
• Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard tied the knot in front of 40 guests in Italy on Saturday. [Us]
• Bebe Neuwirth is married, too. She married Destino vineyard founder Chris Calkins in a Buddhist/Christian ceremony at The Players Club on Gramercy Park. [P6]
• Rihanna has cancelled her comeback concert in the United Arab Emirates. The reason? "Poor timing," she says. [Sun]

20/20 co-anchor John Stossel turns 62 today, which means that mustache of his has been planted on his face for close to four decades now. Comedian and recently-axed CNN host D.L. Hughley is turning 46. New York Philharmonic director Lorin Maazel is 79. Adolfo Carrion, Barack Obama's new director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, is 48. Composer Stephen Schwartz is turning 61. Film director/producer Rob Reiner is 62. Disgraced Wall Streeter Ivan Boesky is 72. Gabriel García Márquez is 82. Shaquille O'Neal is turning 37. Tom Arnold is 50. And a hospitalized Ed McMahon turns 86 today. Weekend birthdays below!

• It seems Rihanna and Chris Brown have reunited: The two have been holed up at Diddy's Star Island mansion since late last week and are now "focusing on a reconciliation." Not surprisingly, fans have been a little bit dismayed by the news. [NYDN, People, Reuters]
• Why didn't Katie Holmes walk the red carpet at the Oscars? She's on an "intense detox diet" that has left her "lethargic," poor thing. [NYDN]
• Sumner Redstone is reportedly dating a former flight attendant who is six decades his junior. [R&M]

The 85-year-old Tonight Show sidekick and enormous check courier has been laid up in serious condition with pneumonia and other ailments, his rep announced today. And just when he was having a Cash4Gold comeback.

• Sarah Jessica Parker is dying to cast Britney Spears as Carrie Bradshaw's younger cousin or niece in the next Sex and the City movie, or at least that's the rumor anyway. [MTV]
• Jeremy Piven was not on the plane that crashed yesterday, just in case you were worried or anything. [NYDN]
• Lindsay Lohan says she works "as hard" as other actors, but she gets no credit due to the "mess that I created in my life." [NYP]
• Is John McCain thwarting our chance to see Cindy McCain on Dancing With the Stars? Say it isn't so! [P6]

The holidays apparently sucked for romance, because many people are breaking up, including no-longer-engaged Jennifer Love Hewitt, fresh-minted divorcee Patricia Arquette and maybe perpetually platonic A-Rod.

• Madonna's interest in Alex Rodriguez appears may have waned (she's been spotted with a young Brazilian model in recent weeks), but there's another rich, older, equally Kaballah-obsessed woman happy to take her place. At a New Year's party in Parrot Cay last week, Donna Karan seemed smitten with the slugger, although A-Rod "refused Karan's advances" since he's "still hung up on Madonna." [P6]
• Not only are most people on Mustique happy the Noel family stayed off the island this year, but a bar even created a "No Noel" cocktail to celebrate. [P6]
• Lindsay Lohan says on her MySpace blog that she and Samantha Ronson have not broken up, just in case you've been up all night worrying. [People]
• Officials in the Bahamas have completed an autopsy on John Travolta's son, Jett, and claim the death was caused by a seizure. [CBS, NYP]

♦ Guy Ritchie and Madonna's marriage came to an official end in the High Court of London courtroom this morning. Neither "Ciccone ML" or "Ritchie GS" actually showed up in person for the proceedings, but Madonna had drinks with ex-husband Sean Penn on Wednesday night, possibly as part of an early celebration. [People, The Sun, P6]
♦ The longest pregnancy in history is finally over: Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz welcomed a son named Bronx Mowgli Wentz into the world last night. Yes, that's Bronx Mowgli. [People]
♦ According to The Sun, Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and has changed his name to "Mikaeel." [The Sun]

♦ Jennifer Aniston is pregnant with John Mayer's baby. At least that's what the always-reliable Star is now reporting. [Star]
♦ Remember how Donald Trump said he'd help Ed McMahon by buying his home out of foreclosure? Seems like it was just a publicity stunt at McMahon's expense, although Ed's newfound career as a rap artist should pay the bills for now. [P6]
♦ Your daily dose of Madonna-Guy news: Madge says her husband lived "like a king" off her money and she's insisting the kids be with her during the holidays ("Christmas doesn't exist in the Madonna household because of Kabbalah"). For his part, Guy may already have a new girlfriend. [Daily Mail, Mirror, Page Six]

Even after our heartfelt appeal for someone, anyone to stop the pimped-out madness that has overtaken Ed McMahon's life, the 85-year-old was featured in an interview this morning of Fox Business, shilling once again for his latest benefactors. But when the chat turned from McMahon's evidently in-demand personal finance tips to his reported bailout by the archangel Donald Trump, the pitchman and ex-Carson sidekick shrugged. "Everything that seems like its wonderful becomes unclear," he said, noting that he still had some Trump-work to do upon returning to Beverly Hills from his East Coast sojourn. "That has not resolved itself yet." No way! Ed explains more after the jump, and while we know the popular warning in investing is that past results are no guarantee of future performance, this really might be just the deal for the short seller in you. [YouTube]

Maybe It's Time For the Ed McMahon Sex Tape: Really, it seems like the only way out for the 85-year-old legend now that even Merv Griffin's ghost is coming around looking for payback. The late mogul's company filed suit recently to reclaim $100,000 that Griffin supposedly loaned to McMahon in 2005; the Griffin Group Inc. claims he still owes every cent (plus interest and attorney fees). It hardly seems fair under the circumstances, in which McMahon is reduced to rapping for his supper and the Griffin estate earns a few thousand dollars every time the Jeopardy! theme is so much as hummed, but business is business. All options are on the table, and let's face it: If McMahon were a midget, this all all would have been settled a long time ago. [AP]

♦ Britney Spears' former boyfriend, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, says he has a sex video featuring him and Britney which he's willing to part with for the right price. And you thought you were done buying sex tapes after the Verne Troyer masterpiece this summer. [NYDN, E!]
♦ Heath Ledger's life insurance company is calling his death "suspicious" and says it won't pay out his $10 mil. policy until it interviews everyone involved, including Mary-Kate Olsen. [NYP]
♦ Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie just had twins. But it's Tuesday, which means they're already thinking of adopting another kid. [Daily Mail]
♦ DJ AM and Travis Barker are both out of the hospital. [NYDN, People, P6]
♦ Janet Jackson checked into the hospital in Canada yesterday. [People]

Earlier this summer, when the news emerged that Sidekick Hall of Fame charter member Ed McMahon was facing imminent foreclosure on and eviction from his Beverly Hills residence, an outpouring of sympathy and support quickly followed from many directions. McMahon's real estate agent threw a Hail Mary as time ran out on his bank's clock. Donald Trump, citing the 85 year old's military heroism and monolithic pop-culture standing, made the one-handed catch for the win. He cameoed last weekend in Josh Groban's Emmy-night Miracle on Figueroa Street. But mostly McMahon has fielded one bone after another thrown his way by the advertising industry — which is turning into a bit of a problem if the new, pimptastic pitchman now being rolled out for the highest bidder is any indication.Obviously this is not new terrain for McMahon; by his own admission the man has "spent my whole life doing commercials," all the way back to having paid his way through college selling vegetable slicers. When he required hospitalization last year for treatment of a broken neck, he all but summoned the Publishers Clearing House prize van before cooler heads dialed 9-1-1. The guy is a born huckster. We get that. We also know that under the circumstances, McMahon probably isn't using the soundest, most selective judgment. Exhibit A: This recently released still from the set of his latest commercial, featuring McMahon — a prodigiously generous man who sat at Johnny Carson's right hand for three decades — as a pimp selling... Hey, you know what? Fuck them. If you wanna look the vultures up, go for it. We know the contradiction that comes with covering this in the first place, but we understand debasement even better, and the long-term potential here outweighs the immediate scourge. Again: Ed McMahon is dressed like a gangsta. Where is Don Draper when we need him? Is this really the best you can do, Madison Avenue? Moreover, where is Hollywood when McMahon needs it? Just when things were looking up, the guy requires someone, anyone to fend off the vampires sucking away what remains of his dignity. Remember, people: Ed McMahon. Any volunteers? [Photo: ETOnline]

Cheers to Ed McMahon, whose week started with more miserable news about lawsuits and money owed but ends with word that he's managed at least one solution: He's found a buyer for his Beverly Hills manse, which was mere weeks away from foreclosure after the beleaguered 85-year-old legend defaulted on $4.8 million in loans with Countrywide. Alas, the inevitable catch: The buyer is Donald Trump, who boasted to the LA Times about his "honor" in leasing the home back to McMahon, adding, "When I was at the Wharton School of Business, I'd watch him every night. How could this happen?" Good question, and one that's partially answered in a fascinating advertisement published this week in the Los Angeles MLS Open House Guide. There, broker Alex Davis made a last-minute, full-page appeal on McMahon's behalf, laying out the dire scenario along with some of the speed bumps he and McMahon had struck along the way: "Lowball offers" of $4.6 million, flaky speculators, and the last of the bank's deadline extensions. But finally the pitch comes down to selling McMahon himself: "[Y]ou will be the hero of a man who's been the hero of so many others if you could help bring this deal to fruition." Ah — so that's what Trump was after. Read the full ad after the jump.

• Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi will be tying the knot in California tomorrow. Portia is expected to wear a Zac Posen gown in front of their 20 guests. [Us, P6]

• So remember how John McCain tried to somehow make an unflattering association between Paris Hilton and Barack Obama? It turns out Paris Hilton's parents have been funneling money to McCain! Thanks a lot WALNUTS. Did you forget the idle rich are kind of a key Republican constituency or something? [Oh No They Didn't]

• A judge has decided to keep Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook's divorce case open, and Diana Bianchi, the teenager Peter cheated on Christie with, says she's willing to testify if need be. [NYDN]