Christina Fulton and Weston Coppola Cage on 10/23/08. Credit: WENN/Fayes Vision

Nicolas Cage threw a lot of money around, and that seems to have included his ex girlfriend and the mother of his oldest son. Cage, who owes over $6 million to the US government and is being sued by - and suing - his former business manager, is now being sued by his ex, Christina Fulton. Fulton, 42, claims that Cage took back a house he gave to her in 2001 for raising their son and that one of his employees racked up charges on one of her credit cards. According to the lawsuit, Fulton is over $1.2 million in debt and wants $13 million from Cage:

Christina Fulton, mother of Cage’s eldest child Weston, 18, is suing the actor for fraud and breach of contract, alleging she’s been caught in the web of his financial mismanagement and is now more than $1.2 million in debt herself, Los Angeles court papers show.

Cage stated in an October lawsuit he faces financial ruin after allegedly being duped by a former accountant, Samuel Levin. The actor currently owes $6.3 million in back taxes, recently defaulted on a $2 million loan, and has begun a massive sell-off of homes, cars, yachts and other possessions to recoup his losses.

Fulton, 42, a former actress, says she was provided an L.A. home years ago by Cage in exchange for raising Weston, and believed the property was under her name. That is until September, when Cage allegedly served her with a 60-day notice to get out.

Fulton says that because of Cage and Levin’s negligence, she now owes the IRS more than $1 million, in addition to $250,000 in unpaid credit card debt. She says the credit card was supposed to be paid off regularly by Cage and that fraudulent charges were racked up by a staffer hired by the actor who didn’t undergo a sufficient background check.

All told, Fulton says damages to her exceed $13 million.

Levin, the accountant, has countersued Cage, stating the actor’s financial collapse was due to his “compulsive, self-destructive spending.”

Cage’s attorney Marty Singer tells PEOPLE: “This lawsuit is ridiculous and absurd. Nicolas Cage has given her approximately three million every year for many years, even though he was only obligated to pay her six thousand a month in child support. We expect this lawsuit to be promptly thrown out.”

[From People]

If this is true and Cage only owed Fulton $6,000 a month but was giving her three million a year and a free house I don’t have a lot of sympathy for her. It’s not like Cage owes her more money just because he decided to give his son a life of luxury. On the other hand, if she believed the home was in her name and had a bunch of fraudulent charges on her credit card from one of Cage’s employees she should be compensated. It’s not Fulton’s fault that Cage was massively overextended.

Radar Online has the court filing for this case and there’s some interesting dirt in there. Fulton’s filing mentions her troubled relationship with Cage in the early 80s and states that they lived together for four years and that Cage emotionally and physically abused her:

After living together off and on for approximately four years [after Weston was born in 1990], and not being able to live with the mental, physical and emotional abuse inflicted upon her by Cage, and feeling that she was subjecting Weston to an unhealthy environment, Plaintiff together with Weston moved out of her common residence with Cage.

The legal document goes on to say that Cage bought Fulton and his son a house in 2001 and told her “that she could restore and decorate… to her liking as it was going to be a permanent residence and as title would be transferred to her as soon as arrangements could be made.” What’s more is that Cage allegedly sent an e-mail to Fulton in 2009 telling her to sell the home if she needed money. It was only when she tried to sell that she realized it was still in Cage’s name. Then at the end of September she got a notice to move out followed by foreclosure notices.

Cage’s financial situation is surely a mess and it’s not surprising that he let down some people who were depending on him. The guy was a compulsive spender and only a massive setback like this was going to stop him.

By the way, have you seen Nicolas Cage’s oldest son? He’s in the photo above. He’s a big kid with long hair and a punk look and I assumed he was in his twenties. He’s only 18, though, and it looks like he could be fending for himself unless his dad steps back in to help.

In an interview with Parade Magazine last week, Nicolas Cage said that he was headed to Africa for eight days, “but I don’t want to talk too much about it because it’s sort of about my new life in terms of what I want to do with the emphasis on action.” Yesterday Cage was photographed visiting jailed Somali Pirates in Kenya. He said that he hopes to learn more about the situation so that he can “actually make some sense when… I go talk to different U.N. councils and discuss the matter.” Cage’s interest in activism seems to coincide with his high profile financial problems, but good for him for doing something that makes a difference.

An AP article, below, notes that Cage is a “U.N. Goodwill Ambassador on Drugs and Crime,” but I did a search of Cage on the website for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and there’s only information about a UN event he attended in May of this year. It seems as if his ambassador appointment was recent.

MOMBASA, Kenya — Film star Nicolas Cage has visited a Kenyan prison holding suspected Somali pirates awaiting trial to highlight the problem of piracy in the Indian Ocean.
Inmates danced for the movie star and shook his hand as he toured the Shimo La Tewa prison in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa. The prison has become a model for other jails in the country because of the reform work of its chief warden, Wanini Kireri.

Cage, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador on Drugs and Crime, told The Associated Press Television News on Tuesday that he wanted to meet with some of the suspected Somali pirates, hear their stories and understand what is fueling piracy off the Somali coast.

“Then I’m in a position where I can actually make some sense and talk about it when I go back to the States where I go talk to different U.N. councils and discuss the matter,” Cage said.

Cage also gave out awards during his Tuesday visit to wardens in recognition of their outstanding work. He left Kenya Wednesday.

Somali pirates are currently holding around a dozen ships and more than 200 crew, and attacks have increased in recent weeks as seasonal rains subsided.

On Wednesday, pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.
An international flotilla of warships now patrols the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden, but pirates continue to carry out attacks because of the millions of dollars that can be made from a successful hijacking.

[From The AP via Google]

Cage is turning over a new leaf by getting more personally involved in charity, and he also seems to have given up the ridiculous dark toupee. Starpulse has photos of Cage’s visit to Kenya, and he has thinning hair slicked back so that you can see his scalp. I don’t like the greasy hair, but he deserves some credit for giving up the wig. That’s got to be a tough decision and he’ll find a look that works for him.

In terms of piracy off the coast of Somalia, I don’t know much about the situation, but I read a very good editorial earlier this year in the Independant. It seems that big companies were dumping toxic waste and illegally fishing in the Indian Ocean. The Somalis were initially trying to deter ships that were plundering their waters and dumping waste that was making them sick. It turned into piracy and we got the impression through the media that these were ruthless criminals kidnapping innocent people. Some of them definitely were, but there’s much more to it than we might think. There’s extreme poverty and despair in the country, and that needs to be considered when trying to address piracy. That definitely doesn’t excuse kidnapping and killing people, though.

Nicolas Cage sued his former money manager last month, claiming that he charged him exhorbitantly while he “placed Cage in numerous highly speculative and risky real estate investments, resulting in Cage suffering catastrophic losses.” Cage owes over $6 million in back taxes to the US government, and has defaulted on a $2 million bank loan. The Daily Beast recently had a jaw-dropping article that chronicled Cage’s insane spending. He would buy the latest high end luxury cars, about a new car a month, along with vintage cars, motorcycles, yachts, jewelry, exotic pets and anything that caught his fancy. He owned luxury homes around the world including castles in Germany and England and a 40 acre island in the Bahamas.

Cage is now being counter-sued by his former money manager, Samuel J. Levin, who worked for him from 2001 to 2008. Levin’s suit is fascinating, and basically confirms the Daily Beast’s account of Cage’s outrageous lifestyle. Levin claims he tried to work with Cage to get him to cut back and warned him repeatedly that he would have to stop spending or face financial ruin. Cage went along with the plan at first and started to sell off some of his assets, but then he started earning more and spending faster than he could keep up with.

Here are the most interesting parts of the counter complaint filed by Levin. Note that Cage is referred as “Coppola,” his given name:

In 2001, by the time Coppola hired Levin, Coppola had already squandered tens of millions of dollars he had earned as a movie star, he was deeply in debt, and he owed million of dollars [sic] in accrued but unpaid income taxes, with no funds available to pay the tax debt… Coppola knew all about his perilous financial situation and he knew he was behind on paying his taxes. Moreover, after making an initial evaluation… Levin warned Coppola that he needed to earn $30,000,000 a year just to maintain his lavish lifestyle…

For a while it looked like Levin’s objectives might be achieved, but the attempt to bring financial sense into Coppola’s life was short lived, because Coppola had a string of hit films, his earnings soared, and Coppola abandoned the economic conservatism he had agreed to with Levin. As Levin sold off automobiles, Coppola bought new ones. Then, Cross-defendant set off on a spending binge of epic proportions, and by July, 2008, Coppola owned 15 palatial homes around the world; four yachts (one for the Caribbean, one for the Mediterranean, one for Newport Beach and one for Rhode Island); an island in the Bahamas, a Gulfstream jet; and millions of dollars in jewelry and art. Commending in 2005 and with increasing urgency in 2006-2007, Levin implored Coppola to reduce his spending and build up a cash reserve as a defense against a potential economic downturn. Coppola rejected this advice and continued his compulsive spending. As a result, in 2007 Coppola’s shopping spree entailed the purchase of three additional residences at a total cost of more than $33,000,000; the purchase of 22 automobiles (including 9 Rolls Royces); 12 purchases of expensive jewelry; and 47 purchases of artwork and exotic items. Coppola also spent huge sums taking his sizeable entourage on costly vacations and threw enormous, Gatsby-style parties at his residences. Warnings by Levin that this spending was excessive and beyond Coppola’s means were not just ignored; at times Levin was rebuked for trying to restrain the outflow of cash. The pinnacle of Coppola’s spending spree came with his quixotic acquisitions of Milford Castle in England and Schloss Neidstein Castle in Bavaria. As a business manager, Levin borrowed and juggled and did was was necessary to pay Coppola’s bills, but Levin warned Coppola that the castles were decrepit and needed huge expenditures just to make them habitable - money which Coppola lacked. Coppola ignored Levin’s advice and bought both castles anyway.

[From PDF of Levin's cross complaint, via TMZ]

The cross complaint goes on to say that Cage/Coppola’s lawsuit against Levin is patently false, because Levin didn’t place him in “speculative real estate investments,” he advised him against buying all those properties, cars, yachts, and other acquisitions. The language in the court filing is strong and convincing, and I found it really compelling. Levin argues that he charged 5% of Cage’s earnings, “a standard fee arrangement for a business manager, and perfectly reasonable, in light of the enormous amount of labor and staff time required to service Coppola’s archipelago of mansions scattered around the world.” Again, the cross complaint maintains that “the charging allegations of Coppola’s lawsuit are false, and Coppola knows them to be false… his losses are entirely and solely the result of his own compulsive, self-destructive spending, which he engaged in against Levin’s counsel and advice.”

I’m on the business manager’s side for sure. Nicolas Cage had a serious spending addiction and it seems to have finally caught up to him. This is some entertaining stuff, and I would love to see a movie based on Cage. We don’t know how this turns out yet, though. Cage could emerge from this fine if he’s able to keep his spending in check. That seems like it would entail a lot of therapy.

Thanks to Oxa for the tip!

Johnny Depp and Nicolas Cage in 1989. They were so hot! Credit: Gary Lewis/Bauergriffinonline

The National Enquirer has a story this week that could possibly be made up, but given Johnny Depp’s reputation as an all-around nice, generous guy I want to think it’s true. Nicolas Cage, who is now over six million in debt to the US government, is almost solely responsible for helping Johnny Depp get his start in show business. Johnny credits Cage with his phenomenal career because Cage is the person who first encouraged him to get into acting. The two were buddies in LA in early 80s, and Cage told Depp, then a musician, that he should give acting a try. The rest is history. According to the Enquirer, Depp heard about Cage’s money problems and gave him a call telling him he would help him out.

When bighearted Johnny, 46, learned of Nic’s troubles, he offered to give him “whatever he needs” to take care of his cash-flow woes, said a friend of Johnny’s.

“Johnny called Nic and basically told him, ‘Look, don’t worry. I’ll help you. You just let me know, all right?’” revealed the friend.

Nic, 4, was touched by the generous offer, but he has so far refused it.

“Johnny has always felt he owes a great debt to Nic, and now he’s ready to repay it - if Nic wants him to,” the source countinued.

Johnny was a down-on-his-luck guitar player with a rock ‘n roll band in the early ’80s when his first wife, a makeup artist, introduced him to Nic. Over a game of Monopoly, Nic suggested the struggling musician try acting.

Johnny later recalled in an interview: “I met (Nic’s) agent, and she sent me to read for a movie (”Nightmare on Elm street”) and they hired me.”…

“Johnny has never forgotten what Nic did for him,” added the source.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 23, 2009]

Cage could probably really use the help. Most of his luxury properties around the world are being auctioned off to pay his debts. TMZ reported yesterday that two of his homes in New Orleans are now up for auction.

In contrast to Cage’s lavish lifestyle, Johnny Depp lives a relatively low-key life with his longterm partner, Vanessa Paradis, and two children in the south of France. Depp has his share of high-end purchases, though. He owns a 45 acre island in the Bahamas and has wine-making facilities on his French estate. He can afford it. Depp made $72 million in 2007 alone.

Nicolas Cage has a new interview in Parade, and of course I read between the lines trying to see if he refers to his immense money problems at all. He doesn’t, except in a vague general terms when he talks about not crying over spilt milk, which I took to mean not trying to think too much about wasting tens of millions of dollars. The most unintentionally hilarious part is when he mentions a stalker he once had - who was a mime. I know stalking is serious and can be deadly for celebrities, but wouldn’t a mime be kind of harmless apart from the high creepiness factor?

In 2007, a guy broke into Cage’s home while his wife and then two year-old son were there. Cage caught the man standing there naked and wearing only one of his stolen jackets. He wasn’t that harmful, though, and let Cage take him outside and call the police. I don’t know if he’s referring to this incident or not, but the intruder had a pass to Cage’s gated community because he has a relative there. It sounds like it was one of those Anne Heche-type crazy random home invasion incidents. This guy doesn’t sound like the mime, because mimes usually wear black leotards and white face make-up, right? It seems kind of fitting that Cage would have a mime for a stalker and a naked guy breaking into his home.

Cage also talked about his upcoming trip to Uganda, and it sounds like he’s trying to commit himself to charity in light of his massive personal problems. He is promoting Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans with Eva Mendes.

His mysterious trip to Africa.
“I’m excited that I’m going to go to Uganda. I’ll spend eight days there, but I don’t want to talk too much about it because it’s sort of about my new life in terms of what I want to do with the emphasis on action. I’ve been to Africa plenty of times, all over, but never Uganda.”

Facing up to what he’d like to avoid.
“I feel you always have to confront your fears within reason. You don’t want the fear to overcome you so the only way to face it, to overcome it is to face it. It’s calling you and you have to answer the challenge. When I’m afraid to do something, I know I have to do it.”

Well, there was that one fan he managed to avoid.
“I guess it would fall into the stalker category more or less. I was being stalked by a mime — silent but maybe deadly. Somehow, this mime would appear on the set of Bringing Out the Dead and start doing strange things. I have no idea how it got past security. Finally, the producers took some action and I haven’t seen the mime since. But it was definitely unsettling.”

Trying to keep it all together.
“I’m a tremendous worrier but I’m beginning to realize that I can’t just cry over spilled milk. When there’s nothing I can do about it, why worry? I just want to keep doing things that excite me and not worry too much about what other people are thinking. When I act, I act for myself. I just have to turn myself on. What I want to do is keep the romance and passion alive in myself.”

[From Parade]

Parade has more, including Cage talking about how he prepared for his role as a drug addict by talking to people in recovery. He comes across as a little neurotic when he compares his performance to abstract art, saying “Acting doesn’t need to be different than painting. If you look at something abstract hanging on the wall in the Museum of Modern Art you might say, ‘Wow, that’s over the top.’ But to me, rather than over the top, it was more like, ‘Hang on a minute, let’s go outside of the box together.’” I have a feeling Cage has been outside the box for most of his life and that he’s finally facing the consequences.

The Daily Beast has a pretty fascinating profile of Nicolas Cage’s mind-boggling lifestyle. Action star Cage, 45, owes over $6.5 million in back taxes and is currently suing his former business manager for fraud, alleging that the manager “placed Cage in numerous highly speculative and risky real estate investments” and essentially is responsible for Cage’s debt problem.

Those who knew Cage say that’s not true, though, and that Cage bought frivolous high-ticket items nearly constantly, including a luxury car a month, various exotic animals, and more mansions, castles and even islands than he could ever use. It all sounds eerily close to Michael Jackson’s lifestyle, including bizarre purchases like shrunken heads and a dinosaur skull. When the economy was flush it didn’t matter as much because Cage’s properties were worth something, but when the real estate market tanked Cage was in deep trouble, and had to sell everything and cut way back.

Here’s a segment from the Daily Beast’s article, which is well worth reading if you get a chance:

Until fairly recently, Cage’s primary residence was the 1940 Bel Air mansion, with eight bedrooms, a theater, wine cellar, and a library. The house’s previous owners included Dean Martin and Tom Jones. “A Gothic mausoleum” is how one sometime guest describes its décor in recent years. When Cage first put it on the market a few years back, the asking price was more than $30 million. He later dropped the price in half, and finally put it up this September in a sealed bid sale, where only offers above $9.95 million were considered. A source close to the sale says it went for less than $15 million. Some argue that the economy may not be the only reason the house went for so much less than Cage had desired. “It was not what I would call good taste,” says the visitor.

Down South, Cage’s two mansions in New Orleans have been foreclosed upon and will be auctioned off later this month. The first, a 13,000-square-foot, six-bedroom house in the Garden District, was originally put on the market for a reported $3.45 million. The second, on Royal Street in the French Quarter, went on sale for $3.5 million and has been described as one of the most beautiful houses in the city, though there are rumors it’s inhabited by ghosts. (Seriously.)

They are among more than a dozen other homes Cage has bought in the last decade or so, in places like Newport Beach; Venice Beach; Malibu; San Francisco; Middletown, Rhode Island; New York; and Las Vegas. There was a castle near Bath, in England, an 11th-century estate in Etzelwang, Germany, and not one but two Bahamian islands, which Cage bought in their entirety. (Movie stars, after all, like privacy, so long as you’re paying attention to them onscreen.)

The bulk of those properties have been sold or are in the process of being sold.

Cage also had a serious car and motorcycle habit. In June 2004, he owned 18 motorcycles and 30 cars, a member of his entourage says. And that was on the low end: At another point, two sources say, the car total was around 50.

In 1997, Cage spent nearly half a million dollars on a Lamborghini Miura SVJ that had been owned by the shah of Iran and was confiscated from the Imperial Garage during the 1979 revolution. Never mind that at the time he bought it, the car was trading for an estimated $250,000 to $300,000. “He didn’t care,” says a close source. “Nic at an auction is dangerous. There’s just no limit to what he’d spend.” He kept the cars in a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, where neighbors with their own hangars included Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Cruise, and Charlie Sheen.

The most bizarre display of Cage’s conspicuous car consumption? A 1955 Jaguar D-Type that he decided to put on exhibit in his billiard room at the Bel Air house, where it was lit from above, like something out of a car dealership. (There was also at least one expensive motorcycle sitting in the foyer, according to three people who visited the house. “It was an eclectic way of decorating,” one shrugs.)

Nor did Cage limit himself to vintage cars, which are typically better investments than new ones. “He had one of every thing that was new and fantastic,” says one source. “Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, Bentleys. If Aston Martin was coming out with a new model, chances are, he would have it.” At one point, the source says, Cage was snapping up cars at a rate of about “one per month.” For a time, the actor also employed a full-time car mechanic, whose job was solely to service his cars, two sources say.

Cage’s penchant for acquisition was aided by the fact that for years, many of the things he spent money on appeared to be good investments. The vintage cars he bought frequently doubled in value, so Cage made a lot of money buying and selling them. (In his case, most sales were followed by more purchases). Real estate was seen as an even safer bet. According to a source from his inner circle, when the first few houses he bought began to accrue in value, Cage began to borrow heavily against them to buy more properties. Unlike the cars, though, he didn’t do nearly enough selling, which placed him in a particularly precarious position when the market began to collapse over the last two and a half years.

And then there were two yachts, at least, and the Gulfstream jet…

Three people who visited his house also report seeing shrunken heads. None is sure whether they were actual people’s heads (which are illegal to import) or simply those of animals (which generally are not). Still, one thing was for certain. “They were pretty weird,” says a source.

So was Cage’s pet collection, which in addition to a handful of purebred dogs, included rare birds and a host of lizards, snakes, and other creepy crawlies. “Basically, a zoo,” is how a person who’s known Cage for many years describes it. He also had two albino King Cobras, this person says, as well as “an antidote serum on the wall, so that if you got bit by a snake you could save yourself.”

There also was a dinosaur skull that Cage purchased in 2007 for $276,000 in a heated auction with Leonardo DiCaprio.

It was a fabulous life while it lasted, but it helps explain why so many people in Hollywood aren’t entirely convinced his ex-money manager is solely to blame for the actor’s financial troubles. Says one person who has known Cage for many years: “I remember a bunch of us saying, ‘How many more magic tricks can Sam do to keep Nic afloat?’ It was a house of cards… I think Nic thought he was invincible.”

[From The Daily Beast]

So poor Nicolas Cage is probably still living in luxury with just a few staff members and a radically reduced set of toys. I can’t say I feel sorry for him. He wasn’t entirely selfish in his spending, though. The article notes that he gave a million to the Red Cross to aid Katrina victims in 2005 and that he donated $2 million to Amnesty International in 2006. Many people have addictions and it sounds like Cage’s is spending. It took a real crisis for him to start to get a handle on it too.

Nicolas Cage is shown on 9/14 and 9/15/09. Credit: WENN.com

The Enquirer has a really funny story this week called “Guys Crave Man Caves”. It’s all about how some big male celebrities are getting in touch with their inner dude and installing special “man cave” areas in their homes. The celebrities listed as “fans of the man cave” are Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Nicolas Cage. A man cave is described as “a private area in the home, where a guy and his buddies can gather”. Growing up, some of you might have referred to this as “dad’s den” or “the garage” or “the bar”. Tsk, tsk. Now you know the proper name!

Nick Beste, a 22-year-old Minneapolis entrepreneur, is promoting the man cave movement, and selling everything from “barbecue stuff, we got meats, we got poker stuff, home bar stuff - anything a man would want.” I love that “meat” is considered a necessity for the man cave. Judging from the multiple “man cave” sites (this one is sad, but this one is pretty cool), I think American men consider a “man cave” to simply be a small, fully-stocked bar and a few stools. And meat, of course. Maybe a radio. Whatever works, I guess. Here’s more about the “movement”:

Brad Pitt reportedly spent $200,000 on his Man Cave. The father of six likes to get a little rest and relaxation now and then by inviting other young dads, including Matt Damon, to play in his Malibu Man Cave.

Vistors say Brad’s “cave” features a vintage Wurlitzer jukebox, and an array of flat screen TVs and motorcycles. He also has another essential - a “kegerator” designed to keep beer kegs chilled.

Nicolas Cage enjoys a Man Cave filled with rare Superman comics. And Johnny Depp keeps guitars in his Parisian cave - alongside cases of wine from his vineyard near St. Tropez.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 9 2009]

Johnny Depp’s man cave sounds like the coolest, right? I’d also consider Johnny’s spectular yacht and private island to be some kind of Man-Cave-related accessories. I mean, Johnny is so f-cking cool, he doesn’t just have a man cave, he has a man-island! As far as Nicolas Cage’s man cave, did anyone feel a little twinge of sadness? The idea that Nick has a man cave where he stores all of his comic books is just so… dorky. Good investments, sure. But it’s still a little nerdy, rather than “man-cave-esque”. And Brad? Well, of course his man cave involves kegs. A while back, I remember reading something in one of the tabloids that basically claimed Brad had built himself a man cave in the French chateau too - and that one involved video games and wine. And reefer, probably.

Thanks to Man Cave World for these excellent cave photos. Note that’s it’s not really a man cave unless you’ve got a 4 foot tile parrot on the floor.

Last Friday afternoon the news came out that Nicolas Cage owed $6.3 million in back taxes to the US Government, which had placed liens on most of his luxury properties. Cage owns a 40 acre island in the Bahamas, and homes in Rhode Island, Lousiana, Nevada, and California. He also owns a castle in England and recently sold a castle in Germany. He failed to pay $6 million in taxes starting in 2007, and owes another $350,000 in taxes from 2002 to 2004. To add to his money woes, Cage has defaulted on a $2 million bank loan.

Someone is timing the release of information about Cage’s money problems so that the news comes out later on Fridays when it’s least likely to get repeated. This Friday the news came out that Cage is suing his former business manager for making risky real estate investments and essentially squandering his money on property that lost value. The lawsuit seems to allege that Cage had no idea that he was overextended and that it’s all his accountant’s fault:

Nicolas Cage sued his former business manager for $20 million on Friday, claiming bad advice and mismanagement led him toward financial ruin.
Cage filed the lawsuit against Samuel J. Levin and his firm.

“Instead of protecting and preserving Cage’s wealth during one of the greatest economic periods in the country’s history, Levin placed Cage in numerous highly speculative and risky real estate investments, resulting in Cage suffering catastrophic losses,” the lawsuit states.

Levin served as Cage’s business manager from 2001 to 2008 and collected millions of dollars in management fees, court documents state.

Cage, 45, relied on Levin’s statements and advice and couldn’t have known about the financial trouble he was facing until after he hired new management, according to the lawsuit.

A phone message left for Levin at his firm Levin & Co. Management Inc. was not immediately returned.

Public records show Levin has been a licensed certified public accountant in California for nearly 25 years and has no public record of disciplinary actions.
An Oscar-winning actor, Cage is known for his dramatic roles in films such as “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Adaptation” as well as action turns in “The Rock” and the “National Treasure” films.

[From The Huffington Post]

I might be able to buy this explanation if 2007 was the first time that Cage owed back taxes, but he also owed $350,000 from 2002 to 2004. Did this business manager/accountant hide all that from Cage and continue to buy properties without telling him he couldn’t afford it? I bet that Cage just wanted to own a bunch of properties, his accountant didn’t tell him it wasn’t a wise idea, and he ended up in debt. If this is what happened it is partially the accountant’s fault, but Cage should have been checking up on his money. It’s hard to believe he didn’t sign off on these property acquisitions and that it’s all someone else’s problem, especially since the accountant has never been accused of something like this before.

Unlikely action star Nicolas Cage, 45, owes over $6.3 million in back taxes to the US government. He wasn’t involved in some tax scam, like Wesley Snipes, it just sounds like he is seriously overextended. Cage owns luxury properties throughout the world, including a castle in England, a 40 acre island in the Bahamas, and homes in Rhode Island, Lousiana, Nevada, and California. He recently sold a castle in Germany. Real estate has proven a lousy investment lately, and Cage has taken a serious hit. The US Government has placed a $6.3 million lien on his property, most of which is for sale, to collect unpaid taxes dating back to 2007. He has also defaulted on a $2 million bank loan:

On screen, he has battled everything from hardened convicts to vast conspiracies. Now Nicolas Cage is tangling with what may prove to be his toughest foe: the IRS.

The government has placed a tax lien on his vast real estate holdings because of $6 million in unpaid back taxes dating from 2007, the year of the 45-year-old actor’s box office hits Ghost Rider and National Treasure: Book of Secrets, according to court papers.

In addition, the Internal Revenue Service has yet another lien for over $350,000 in unpaid taxes dating from 2002 to 2004.

The larger tax lien, which was first filed in July, comes as Cage has begun liquidating his many legendary multimillion-dollar properties. He sold his castle in Germany, and has placed on the market his homes in California, Las Vegas, and New Orleans.

Cage is dealing with more than the tax collector. East West Bank filed a breach of contract complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming he had failed to repay a $2 million loan that was extended this past August.

His reps didn’t immediately comment.

[From People]

I kind of find it fascinating when people who have more money than entire municipalities somehow manage to squander it all away on crap they’ll never need or use. Michael Jackson was a prime example of this, with his exotic animal zoo, amusement park, and all the strange, useless expensive junk he collected. His estate was said to have been worth 1/2 a billion when he died, but he was living in a rented home and training rigorously for a series of concerts he probably never would have agreed to if he had money saved. In Cage’s case he collected property and it lost value. Maybe he wouldn’t be in this situation if he would have taken a pass on a house or two.

My husband can’t stand Nicolas Cage and will find some schadenfreude in this news. Cage doesn’t really register for me and I find him kind of harmless, but my husband calls him “a talentless arrogant actor” who is decent at action films, but “sucks when playing character roles.” I thought he was ok in those National Treasure movies, which are enjoyable enough historical fluff. Whether Cage’s acting is worth tens of millions of dollars is up to question, but his films make bank.

According to IMDB, Cage has four films coming out next year, one in 2011, and five in development. He’ll manage to pay off the IRS if he can downsize a little. The spoiled, arrogant jerk. (That was for you, honey.)

Nicolas Cage is shown at a press conference for Bad Lieutenant in Toronto on 9/15/09. Credit: WENN.com

You know it’s a bad economy when movie stars start selling their castles. Nicolas Cage bought his German one, Schloss Neidstein, in 2006, and has spent millions of dollars to renovate the 11th century property. The castle has 28 rooms and is surrounded by nearly 400 acres of meadows, forests and fields. Sounds nice.

People always make fun of Nicholas Cage, and I’m not sure why. Once upon a time, he was one of the best actors out there, although he’s spent the last dozen years making the same brainless action movie over and over again. But he makes the studios a lot of money, and he’ll always get work. And he’s amassed quite the savings account in the process too. The German castle was only one part of his vast real estate portfolio:

Oscar winner Nicolas Cage is selling his 11th century estate called Schloss Neidstein in Etzelwang, Germany, after he bought it in 2006 and set about restoring the castle to its former glory.

The actor, whose mother Joy Vogelsang is from Germany, purchased the estate for some £1.6 million, but is understood to have spent that twice over since in renovating the castle.

Schloss Neidstein sits on a hill with a stunning view of 395 acres of forest, meadows and fields. The 9,688-square-foot castle has 28 rooms, including 10 bedrooms and five bathrooms.

But he was only seen visiting the estate once, in 2008. “He didn’t have his heart in it,” said Roman Berr, the local mayor. And now the “Leaving Las Vegas” star has sold the property to a lawyer, according to Mr Berr.

But the nephew of legendary Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola still has a considerable property portfolio, including homes in Los Angeles, Louisiana and another castle, the 18th century Midford Castle on the outskirts of Bath.

In a recent interview with British radio station Heart, the actor spoke of his love for his English retreat, saying, “The castle is in a process of restoration and hasn’t been finished yet. It’s a long process. It’s from the 1700s and it needs quite a bit of love.”

“It’s more like a castle of the imagination. It’s more of a Lewis Carroll-type castle actually; quite fantastical and all that.”

[From The Telegraph]

That’s nice. He has a new castle to renovate. I was worried for a second. I already knew he had a big house in New Orleans and lots of property in Hollywood, but The Telegraph doesn’t mention that Cage also owns at least one private island in the Caribbean. Who needs a German castle when you’re got your own tropical island?

Here’s Nicolas Cage on the set of ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ in New York City on Monday. Images thanks to WENN .