Last week, an attorney working with O'Neal said the Phoenix Suns center wants to buy the mortgages of people whose homes are in foreclosure, then give the homeowner a new mortgage with better terms. Homeowners would stay in their homes with more affordable payments, and O'Neal would turn a small profit.

The problem is, O'Neal does not yet have a concrete plan. He wasn't planning an announcement, and word leaked out when he made an impromptu visit to Orlando City Hall last week.

On a less star-studded note, The Wall Street Journal reports that some employers are helping workers with no-interest loans and the like:

Productivity tends to wane when workers are suffering from financial or other pressures, says Laura Wallace, manager of work/life programs at SAS Institute Inc., a business-intelligence software company. Providing help "just makes really good business sense," she says. "If you're worried about losing your home, your creativity is going to go out the window."