From Us: "Actor Nicolas Cage's films have grossed a collective $3.9 billion in worldwide box office receipts. So, I saw Con Air 12 times. We've all made mistakes in life. Today, though, the Oscar winner owes $6 million in back taxes; in October, he sued his former money manager for $20 million, saying he was led "down a path of financial ruin," according to court documents. How did he do it? Bad financial advice or not, Cage, 45, lived a super-sized life. While most of his possessions are now for sale, already sold or in foreclosure, the star once owned a staggering -- and bizarre - array of, well, stuff. Among Cage's many, many expenditures - as tabulated by New York magazine - were the following: One jet and two yachts. You need one for work and one for home. Everyone knows that. In 2007, he outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for a dinosaur skull, shelling out $276,000 for the artifact. Let's not forget that this makes Leo crazy too. His homes included three castles - plus two islands in the Bahamas. As, per the yacht thing: You need one for work and one for home. Among his "dozen or so" mansions, one Bel Air home, purchased in 1998, features a billiard room with a 1955 Jaguar parked inside plus an array of "shrunken heads." You expect him to have unshrunken heads? That would be completely unsanitary. Out of his 50 cars, the most Cage ever shelled out was $495,000 on Lamborghini - used. (Its former owner was the shah of Iran.) Obsessed with superheroes (he was once set to star in a Superman sequel), he sold his comics collection in 1997 for $1.6 million. While portraying an alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas (his Oscar-winning role) in 1995, he hired an "on set drinking-consultant-poet." I have one of those. His name is Melvin. He goes with me everywhere. What's so strange about that? He's not merely a big spender when it comes to himself, either. He proposed to Patricia Arquette upon their first meeting in 1987. The actress refused, and Cage suggested he go on a "quest" to prove his love. Arquette challenged Cage to track down a laundry list of odd items: an autograph from author JD Salinger, a "Bob's Big Boy" statue and a Tibetan wedding dress. Let me speak for all of womankind when I point out that doing something that romantic wipes out Shrunken Head Collection and Dinosaur Head on the Coffee Table. It's a rule. Cage fulfilled his "quest," but it took him another eight years to convince Arquette marry him in 1995. (They divorced six years later.)
When Nicolas and Patricia divorced, who got custody of the dinosaur head? Doctor Doolittle?
Posted by: Leon Arp | November 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM