And Yet Somehow the Numbers Didn’t Add Up

Nicolas Cage has had an amazingly durable career for a guy with such uneven script choices and such godawful hair, but lately he’s been more in the news for his increasingly shaky finances. He’s broke, selling off his various homes (and castles), and suing his business manager—which seems reasonable, if the man neglected to tell him to pay more than $6 million in taxes. But, sad as it is, these things happen. A few unlucky investments, or putting your money into Bernie Madoff’s hedge fund, can land an otherwise wealthy person right in the poorhouse…

What’s that? Nicolas Cage didn’t do any of those things, you say? No, it turns out he burned through many, many millions of dollars because he was spending money like Michael Jackson on a children’s-cough-syrup binge. The Daily Beast has an article on Cage’s spending habits, and it makes amazing reading. Here are just a few of the items for which Nic shelled out the bucks over the years:

• At least four different homes he owned at the same time, including not one but two castles;
• A fleet of nearly 50 automobiles and 18 motorcycles; including a Lamorghini owned by the Shah that cost him $500,000;
• A dinosaur skull for which he paid a cool quarter million;
• A menagery of exotic pets, including two albino king cobras.
• Extremely expensive Elvis memorabilia (aka Lisa Marie Presley).

You can read more about Cage’s undeniably awesome lifestyle here. This new information tempts me to go back and rewatch a few of his films. Not all of his performances were convincing, but he fooled me into thinking he was marginally sane and that’s starting to look like an impressive feat.