People: Dec. 29, 1986

Marriage and alimony jokes have all but become fixtures of his Tonight show monologue, but no kidding, folks, Johnny Carson, 61, is serious about getting married a fourth time. The bean-pole comic’s flacks let it be known last week that he has become engaged to Alex Maas, a blond beauty in her mid-30s who has been his live-in for the past year and a half. Carson met Maas on the beach near his Malibu home. No date has been set for the wedding. It is understandable if Carson is in no hurry to retie the knot. His support payment for his third wife comes to a whopping $420,000 a year.