In what has to be the most bizarre celebrity diet justification I’ve ever heard, Nicolas Cage (allegedly) explained that he only eats animals that have “dignified” sex and not “dirty” sex. Doesn’t this gross you out? I’ve never really thought about animals having sex (except for that time near the monkey cage at the zoo) and something like this would never occur me. Is this what Cage does on his time off, look up videos on the Internet of his potential food copulating? This quote originated in British paper The Sun, and I hope these people were smoking something and made this whole thing up. It’s just too out there and doesn’t sound like the typical fabricated quote, though.

Nicolas Cage has reportedly revealed that he will eat only animals who mate in a dignified fashion, a dietary preference which apparently rules out pork. According to the Sun, the Oscar-winning actor is happy to eat fish or poultry because their love lives are more decorous.

“I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales – sentient life – insects, reptiles,” says Cage, who is currently getting great reviews for his performance as a drug-addled detective in Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, a quasi-remake of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 tale of a destructive cop.

He continues: “I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds.

“But pigs, not so much. So I don’t eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl.”

Cage, whose glowing Bad Lieutenant notices follow praise for his role in Kick-Ass, is known for having an eccentric fascination with animals. He has a tattoo of a lizard wearing a top hat, has owned a pet octopus and once ate a cockroach for a movie role.

For Bad Lieutenant, which is out in the UK on Friday, he bought a snake with two heads to protect him during filming in New Orleans. The creature was later donated to a zoo.

[From The Guardian via Gossip Rocks]

That’s just so out there! Many people chose to stick to eating just fish and poultry and skip red meat and pork due to the health risks associated with eating it. I’ve never heard of anything like this. Maybe pigs and cows (I guess he’s talking about cows too) have “dirty” sex because they’re mammals. Yuck – I have thought about animal sex way too much today. It’s enough to take away my appetite completely, which could explain Cage’s reason for considering their sex lives. If you think about animals doing it, you just don’t want to eat at all.

Cage is a strange bird. If you have some time and and haven’t yet read the Daily Beast’s fascinating account about Cage’s insane lifestyle, I highly recommend you check it out. The piece ran late last year when the news came out that several of Cage’s properties were in foreclosure and that he owed $6.5 million in back taxes. He owned several castles, mansions, an island, exotic pets and more luxury cars than he could ever use. He took his buddies on exotic vacations and regularly held lavish parties described as “Gatsby style.” Now he’s downsizing his lifestyle and ruminating on the sex lives of his food. The guy is still making money hand over fist, though.

Nicolas Cage, his young wife Alice Kim, and Tom Cruise are shown at the hand and footprint ceremony for Jerry Bruckheimer at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Monday. Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images.