Cancel the telethon… Ed McMahon got a job.
Johnny Carson’s longtime “Tonight Show” sidekick, who recently made headlines when he went public about his financial woes, is off the unemployment line.
The 85-year-old is heading back to the airwaves as a pitchman for Pontiac cars. McMahon reportedly shot a series of comical commercials for the car manufacturer, which will start airing Monday on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“It felt very good to be out of the brace and working again,” McMahon, told reporters today, referring to the brace he has been forced to wear following a third neck operation. “I spent my whole life doing commercials, so here I was back doing a commercial again. It was very comforting. Believe me.”
I’m sure. He’s got the neck brace off and now the bill collectors will hopefully get off his back too.
Reports say McMahon and Kimmel shot four commercials spoofing one another.
“There’s one where Kimmel’s locked up in the trunk, and I’m pretending to be Jimmy Kimmel,” McMahon revealed. “It was fun, but we’re still selling a product.”
With any luck McMahon’s appearance in the commercials will help sell some wheels so he can help pay off his own.
In other news concerning financially struggling former TV stars, Dustin Diamond, who played Samuel “Screech” Powers on the popular ‘90s teen series “Saved by the Bell,” is trying to pad his bank account by spilling the beans about his former castmates.
According to New York magazine, Diamond is penning a tell-all, which reveals the “sexual escapades among cast members.” The book, which is tentatively titled “Behind the Bell” will reportedly delve into the hardcore partying and other real-life shenanigans conducted by the show’s stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Lark Voorhies, Tiffani Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley and Diamond while they played students at fictional Bayside High School.
Personally, I think Diamond should have used his own life as the subject of a book. Goodness knows he has more than enough material. Not only did he release a controversial sex tape, but he also made enemies on the fifth season of the VH1 reality show “Celebrity Fit Club,” when he called fellow contestant Kimberly Locke “a loser on another show [“American Idol”].”
Diamond’s book is scheduled to be released at the end of the year.