Heeere’s Ed’s Buyer--at Last

ED McMAHON, Johnny Carson’s sidekick on NBC’s “Tonight Show” and host of the syndicated “Star Search,” has sold his Beverly Hills mansion for slightly more than $4.1 million.

The sales price is one of the highest this year for a private home on the Westside. All are in the $4-million range, though the highest price since January in Southern California is $13.8 million, for a home on Harbour Island in Orange County.

McMahon first listed his house in December, 1989, at $7.9 million. He listed the house six months later with another broker at $5.9 million.

The house has six bedrooms, staff quarters, a family/projection room and a library in about 10,000 square feet. It also has a swimming pool and sits on nearly an acre of land.

The mansion, a Georgian Colonial, was built in the 1930s on a 30-acre site for producer David O. Selznick and his wife, Irene, daughter of movie mogul Louis B. Mayer.

After the property was subdivided, it was owned by billionaire real estate tycoon David Murdock, who sold it to producer/department-store heir Ted Field. Field never lived there but sold the home about six years ago to McMahon and his wife of 13 years, Victoria.

The property was sold as part of their divorce settlement. She was living in the house when it was purchased by an English businessman who was already residing in Beverly Hills.

Since he filed for divorce in July, 1989, McMahon has been living in a nearby house that he has been renting from actress Linda Evans at $12,500 a month, sources said.

In recent months, he bought a newly built house in The Summit, a development off Mulholland Drive, but his ex-fiancee, Ma Maison maitre d’ Joanna Ford, has been living there, sources added. Their January wedding was called off in December.

Joyce Flaherty of Prudential Rodeo Realty represented the McMahons, and Jon Aaroe of Douglas Properties represented the buyer. Neither was available for comment.

The WHITE HOUSE was used as a model for a mansion that is nearing completion on five acres in the Malibu mountains.

“But the owner didn’t bring in a photo of the White House. He used the example on a $20 bill,” said design consultant Chris Firestone, whose father, Ronald, a North Hollywood architect, designed the two-story residence with six bedrooms, two maids’ quarters and 15 baths in 20,000 square feet.

The owner, who has been building the mansion himself for 2 1/2 years, “just liked the look” of the White House, the younger Firestone said, “though the baroque interiors have little to do with the colonial exterior.”

What they have in common is a touch of gilt. The owner is reportedly in the gold business.

He was described, by the younger Firestone, as an entrepreneur who was born in Iran and later moved to Kuwait, where he built dams and hospitals. While living in the Middle East, he was also in the citrus business.

He plans to have a citrus orchard, guest house, pool, pool house, tennis court and stables at his Malibu home, which he expects to finish in a few weeks at an estimated construction cost of $4 million.

While building, he has been living in Encino with his wife, who hasn’t yet seen the Malibu mansion, according to the younger Firestone. “She wants to wait until it’s completed,” he said.

The late CLIFF MAY, known as the father of the California ranch-style house, designed an 8,000-square-foot one for himself in Brentwood that has come on the market at $17 million.

Known as Mandalay, the one-story residence has three bedrooms, a guest house and stables on 25 acres of rolling meadows contiguous to the 15,000-acre-plus Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Built about 25 years ago, the home is reached by a private drive through 10-foot-high gates.

May lived there until he was divorced in the mid-1980s. He died at age 81 in 1989.

Jeff Hyland of Alvarez, Hyland & Young shares the listing with Marilyn Philips and Melany Bourdon of Coldwell Banker.