Actor Nicolas Cage, the Oscar-winning star of classic action films like The Rock and Face/Off, as well as more family-friend fare like National Treasure, was arrested early Saturday morning in New Orleans over unspecified domestic abuse allegations and disturbing the peace, TMZ reported. A source told TMZ that Cage was "very drunk" when a cab driver called the police to report a spat between the actor and his wife Alice.
New Orleans cops later said that the argument started when Cage and his wife disagreed over the exact address of the apartment they were renting in New Orleans. The couple was allegedly standing in front of the property he insisted they were renting. She maintained it was the wrong address, at which point he grabbed her by the arm to pull her toward the correct address. Growing angrier over their disagreement, Cage, according to the reports, began to hit parked cars and eventually got into a cab. The cabby, sensing something was not quite right with his passenger, called the police.
When cops arrived, Cage taunted them: "Why don't you just arrest me?" And they did. Cage was brought to jail on $11,000 bail and released later that morning, thanks to friend Duane "Dog" Chapman" (star of the reality-TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter). His wife allegedly insisted that she did not want him charged and that there was no physical contact between the two of them (aside from the arm-grab, which left no mark).
The bounty hunter isn't Cage's only questionable friend: During Charlie Sheen's Violent Torpedo of Truth tour at Radio City Music Hall on April 9, Sheen gave Cage credit for coming up with the term "Goddess" to describe the young ladies Sheen lives with. Sheen talked about how he and Cage were once on a flight together to San Francisco. They were allegedly both carrying cocaine and barely escaped a confrontation with several FBI agents on board. During this eventful flight, Cage referred to a blond stewardess as "a [expletive] goddess," and the term has stuck with Sheen ever since.
Cage doesn't exactly have a clean record, and as Jacob Bernstein reported in November 2009, his compulsive spending habits have landed him in trouble with the law over the years. In 2008, Forbes reported that Cage was in trouble with the IRS for allegedly using his production company to write off $3.3 million in personal expenses, including "limos, meals, gifts, travel, and his Gulfstream [jet]." Sam Levin, his money manager at the time, told Forbes such expenses were "customary" in the entertainment industry. Cage was forced to pay back-taxes of about $666,000—far less than what the feds were seeking—but he fired his money manager anyway, and in 2009 sued him for $20 million in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming he used the actor's money to make himself rich while "sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin." That year, the government came after him for his taxes again, asking for $6 million. (The bill has apparently not yet been settled.)
During Charlie Sheen's Violent Torpedo of Truth tour at Radio City Music Hall on April 9, Sheen gave Cage credit for coming up with the term "Goddess."
And then there's the lavish lifestyle. Cage has shown a particular penchant for spending money on cars. In 2003, he famously threw an over-the-top Christmas party at his castle-like Bel Air mansion. Guests included Hugh Hefner and Jay Leno, who later called it the greatest Christmas party he'd ever been to. In 1997, the actor spent nearly half a million dollars on a Lamborghini Miura SVJ that had been owned by the shah of Iran. Perhaps his most outrageous display of conspicuous consumption was the 1955 Jaguard D-Type that he exhibited in the billiard room at his Bel Air mansion, where lights shined down on it from the ceiling.
In addition to Saturday's meltdown, Cage went off the handle in December 2010 in Romania—of all places—where he was videotaped yelling at unknown people for unknown reasons.
