If you didn't know Nicolas Cage was more than a little bit strange in the way that he spends his money, you probably haven't been paying enough attention to him.
Cage is well-known as one of the most spendthrift Hollywood stars and, according to reports in Hollywood, the full extent of his purchases over the years has depleted his fortune to just 15% of what it was at its peak.
Cage was valued at $150 million around a decade ago, fresh off the back of a string of huge blockbuster hits that began with Leaving Las Vegas in 1995, which won him an Oscar for Best Actor, and continued through mainstream smashes like Con Air, Face/Off, Adaptation, Lord of War and National Treasure.
However, his lavish spending has seen that fortune shrink to an estimated $25 million, reports the Daily Mail.
Advert
The extent of Cage's purchases is mind-boggling. At one point he owned 15 homes, scattered around the world from more typical haunts like Hollywood, New York and Las Vegas to more obscure locations such as the Bahamas, Bavaria and Somerset.
One of his piles was a New Orleans mansion described as 'the most haunted in America' after a legend of a 19th-century socialite who murdered African slaves, while another was a Bavarian castle which he bought in 2006 and sold just three years later.
Real Estate is far from the height of Cage's spending, however. He also bought a dinosaur skull for $276,000 - beating out Leo DiCaprio in an auction - before giving it up to the Mongolian government after discovering that it had been stolen from the Asian nation.
He also acquired a Lamborghini car that was previously owned by the Shah of Iran - who ruled the Middle Eastern country before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 - in 1997 for a sum of $450,000.
Advert
Furthermore, Cage has reportedly built a menagerie that includes two albino king cobras, a crocodile, a shark and a $150,000 pet octopus. Throw in a $14 million bill that he was forced to settle with the US taxman and it isn't hard to see how all the cash has been frittered away.
Of course, the upshot of this for the movie-going public is that the Nicolas Cage meme machine keeps spinning. His most recent role fits right into the recent career trajectory.
Mandy, released this week in the US, features Cage snorting coke off a piece of shattered glass and battling a sinister cult around the 1980s Mojave Desert. Reviews to date have focussed on just how weird it is and, frankly we can't wait for it to hit the UK.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Movies, TV and Film, Money, US Entertainment, Hollywood