Gone in Sixty Seconds: Nic Cage’s Money

Sometimes we understand why celebrities go broke. Of course Michael Jackson couldn’t fund 10-million-dollar shopping sprees thrice weekly on only royalty checks. But Nicolas Cage going broke? IMDB lists him as having no fewer than five films in production. Just a year ago he made Forbes’s list of the most overpayed actors. But no less, chump is out of cash. Says People:

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.

Sure, the guy may make piles of dough, but he’s not exactly thrifty. Until recently he owned two castles. Two. One morning he must have woken up in his creaking, Medieval four-poster bed, swept a few decrepit cobwebs out of his way as a bone-chilling draft came through his castle’s ancient tuckpointing and thought, “Man, this is the life. I need to buy another one of these castles.” Plus, we hear he’s blown a ton of moola on dinosaur bones. Those suckers aren’t cheap.