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Wow,what a lavish lifestyle!

Nicolas Cage caused his own financial ills, ex-business manager saysBy Alan Duke, CNN
November 17, 2009 8:06 p.m. EST

Nicolas Cage has filed suit against his business manager, saying he was led "down a path toward financial ruin."STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Samuel Levin responds to a lawsuit actor Nicolas Cage filed against him
Cage bought 2 castles, 15 homes, yachts, Rolls Royces, against advice, Levin says
Cage should have known about his debt because he signed the checks, Levin says

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Nicolas Cage brought about his own financial ruin with a spending spree that included two castles, 15 palatial homes, a flotilla of yachts and a squadron of Rolls Royces, his former business manager said.

Samuel Levin, responding to a lawsuit Cage filed against him, said he warned the Oscar-winning actor that he could face bankruptcy unless he scaled back his lavish lifestyle.

Cage, one of Hollywood's highest-paid movie stars, sued Levin in October, charging that he "lined his pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin."

"Cage discovered that he is now forced to sell major assets and investments at a significant loss and is faced with huge tax liabilities because of Levin's incompetence, misrepresentations and recklessness," Cage's lawsuit said. He asked the Los Angeles Superior Court for $20 million in damages from Levin.

Levin filed a counter-complaint this week demanding $129,000 owed to him by Cage for recent work on his tax returns. The filing also argued that Cage was "deeply in debt" when he started working for him in 2001 because Cage had "already squandered tens of millions of dollars he had earned as a movie star."

Levin said he warned Cage, whose given name is Nicolas Coppola, that he needed to earn $30 million a year "just to maintain his lavish lifestyle." He urged Cage to save "a cash cushion" of at least $10 million "to alleviate the financial pressure to take film roles that might be detrimental to his career," Levin's response said.

Several of Cage's recent movie roles have been seen by critics as "paycheck gigs" taken only because of his pressing debt.

Levin's filing claimed that starting in 2005 and then "with increasing urgency" over the next two years, he "implored Coppola to stop buying real estate and urged him to reduce his real estate holdings, warning Coppola that the financial press was filled with references to a 'real estate bubble.' "

He countered Cage's claim that the actor was left in the dark about his finances.

"Levin repeatedly warned Coppola that he was living beyond his means, urged him to spend less, and warned him that financial disaster loomed if he continued to spend uncontrollably," Levin's filing said.

"Levin described the folly of several other well-known entertainers who compulsively overspent their way into bankruptcy, and warned Coppola 'it could happen to you,' " the filing said.

Cage should have known about his debt because "he signed every check for every monetary transaction throughout the relationship," Levin said.

"Instead of listening to Levin, cross-defendant Coppola spent most of his free time shopping for high ticket purchases, and wound up with 15 personal residences, most of which were bought against Levin's advice," Levin's complaint said. "Likewise, Levin advised Coppola against buying a Gulfstream jet, against buying and owning a flotilla of yachts, against buying and owning a squadron of Rolls Royces, against buying millions of dollars in jewelry and art."

Cage's four yachts included one each for the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Newport Beach, California, and Rhode Island, Levin said.

In 2007 alone, Cage's "shopping spree entailed the purchase of three additional residences at a total cost of more than $33 million; the purchase of 22 automobiles (including 9 Rolls Royces); 12 purchases of expensive jewelry; and 47 purchases of artwork and exotic items," Levin's filing said.

"Coppola also spent huge sums taking his sizable entourage on costly vacations and threw enormous, Gatsby-style parties at his residences," it said.

Levin's warnings that Cage was living beyond his means were not just ignored, but "at times Levin was rebuked for trying to restrain the outflow of cash," he said.

"The pinnacle" of Cage's spending spree was the purchase of two castles -- in England and Germany -- which Levin warned "were decrepit and needed huge expenditures," he said.

Cage's financial collapse came in 2008 when real estate values plunged and most of his residences turned "upside down, just as the global credit crunch made it impossible to cover Coppola's endless cash calls by borrowing more money," Levin said.

The case of Nicolas Cage versus Samuel Levin is set for a hearing in a Beverly Hills, California, courtroom on February 3, 2010, according to court records.

This guy has made nothing but crap for years. I can't believe he is well paid. This kind of compulsive consumerism is pathetic.

Said amid America's worst economic crisis in 70 years. There's a lot of "pathetic" in this country right now.

National Treasure was a good movie! I like Nic Cage has an actor but it reminds me of the lavish lifestyles of executives and Wall Street power players who created this mess. They'll go on living like kings while the rest pick up the pieces.

How many kids would love to live in a castle that are homeless? 4 yachts?15 homes? a fleet of Rolls Royces? A jet and who knows what else. It must be good living on the right side of the tracks.

2 words. Ghost Rider.

Are you insinuating it is someone's patriotic duty to spend? Not quite sure what is funny about the statement but compulsive consumerism especially as far as real estate could fairly be described as to why we are in the crisis. One of the warts on capitalism to me has always been the attitude that if the economy wasn't growing it was dying. They gauge its health in new housing starts, etc. When is enough enough and you maintain what you have? Sports stadiums are the perfect example. People own washing machines longer than some venues' lifetime. It's an ecological disaster and, simply put, greedy and wasteful, IMO. Cage sounds like a guy who feels like he has to own everything he becomes intrigued by. It would seem his consumerism pre-dated the mighty collapse.

I dont think it's unpatriotic to spend, especially in real estate. There is a reason they call it 'real'. It's not PETS.COM. It is land. One of the few things they aren't making any more of ( except in some parts of the Pacific ).

Now, if Cage had bought an amusement park and chimps, yeah that is wasteful, but if he bought 'castles', well? Seems he had a bad case of the 'gimmees'....

When I bought my first house in East Atlanta in 1997, I had to put 20% down or pay PMI. When I bought my 2nd house, it was as easy as getting a credit card. THAT was the problem. LENDING the $$. Oversight. Cage is going into bk because he borrowed too much: his financial guy probably does have some guilt on him, after all there is a processing fee involved most times.

"Mr Cage, I recommend you dont buy this castle. However, if you deem it necessary, okay, but I will have to charge you for __"

I don't think that is out of the question. I'm sure the guy gave just as much 'advice' to cover his ass, but if he was worth anything he could have seen where this was going. I pay a handsome sum for good advice every month.

You do bring up a good question about sports 'authorities'. BnB, would you be 'just as happy' in the old Fulton Co stadium? Realy? I cannot say, I never went to 10+ years there....We built the Dome to attract the olympics, without that facility, we would not have had that. Billy Payne said as much. I could regale you with stories about the shenanigans involved with that whole fiasco, but why? Sometimes, ecology just plain gets in the way. There is a certain amount of 'keeping up with the Joneses', and I see that point.

Wesley Snipes went to prison because some idiot told him he didn;t have to pay income taxes. Now: was that Wesley's fault? Sure was. But, you cannot excuse that guy who steered him wrong....

There are certain things we could do, and do not. I recall in my many trips to Europe being amazed at the tankless water systems they got. I was introduced to the hybrid car just before 9-11 in Switzerland! 4 years before the Prius was even on the market... Europe has the drop on us for sure, but those girls don't need all the hot H20 for shaving thier pits

I can understand buying things for an investment but there is a fine line saying I bought it for an investment rather than buy in excess just because you don't have enough toys.It just seems Cage was buying in excess.Like some athletes when they quit sports they don't know how to control their spending and they go bankrupt.

I hope Cage learns you can't trust others to do your financing.I know stars don't have alot of time but you make time. Maybe you don't go on that Hawaian vacation or a trip to Europe. Find the time to manage your finances its your hard work at risk.

The guy owns nine or ten Rolls Royces. Is that "investing?" do they appreciate?

America is a country of excess.

Cage collects cars like Mormons collect women!

I read somewhere that Leonardo Dicaprio owns alot of Prius, too Everyone knows the minute you drive a car off the lot, it's lost half it's value...

"America is a country of excess."

America is a country where your free to be excessive. I would say the UAE is a country of 'excess'.

Hey, I defend anyone's right to be an idiot for as long as they like. Who am I to talk? I'm a Falcons fan. But it's hard to have any pity for this kind of childish materialism. true that America is a country of excess in ways. When you objectively examine the sport of football it is the perfect metaphor for who we are. Note that no other country has really embraced it on anything like the feverish level we do.

The prince of the UAE (or sultan?) is excessive. But everybody in America is excessive.

New York probably throws away more food on a daily basis than is consumed in many African countries.

We have endless resources of pretty much everything. Aren't we a country that pays farmers not to grow too much corn?

12-year olds have cell phones now. Heck, it might be 8-year olds have cell phones now. I got my first cell phone when I was 20, about 6 years ago. Why do kids have cell phones? No real reason.

Free to be excessive? No, it's expected to be excessive.

While there are some things to be said for the security of giving a child a cell phone I rue the day I ever gave one to my daughter. She was/is your classic crackberry kid...until I took it away about a month ago and, lo and behold, she became human again. It's remarkable. And you are dead on about the food wasting. I always say the dumpster behind McD's would be the best restaurant in town in plenty of countries. BTW, whose expectations are we trying to live up to here?

I always wondered what happens to the food at stores when it expires by the date. I mean any grocery store any state. Think of the millions of dollars thrown away because people didn't buy it by the expire date.

Tons in pure waste yearly though I know guys locally who will tell people when they are putting it out on the DL and they'll scoop it up behind the store. There are lots of older folks who are hungry and are not too proud to do this kind of thing. And the expiration dates are probably made to be on the safe side. It's a tragedy when you consider all the hunger in the world but understandable when you consider all the lawyers in the world.

Someone should invent a food recycler. Take all of the wasted food that restaurants use on a daily basis, put through a grinder, pasteurize it, can it, and ship it overseas.

OK, that's probably a completely impractical pipe dream. But in theory America could probably feed at least a third of the world off just its table scraps.

Look, I'm not complaining. I love the fact that I can go down to the grocery store 0.3 miles from my house, spend some money and binge on fatty, delicious foods. I don't throw a lot of food because I eat it all (thus my name ). And the only reason I would try to walk in the shoes of an Ethiopian is for the completely selfish reason of their eating 3 bowls of porridge a week is for the excellent diet it would be. See how much of a terrible human being I am? Live in Africa for 6 months, lose 80 pounds, and then come back to America and the first thing I'll do when I get off the plane is hit up McDonalds for 4 double cheeseburgers, a large fry, and a shamrock shake.

And this is why I love America!

When I was coming up we were always told, "Clean your plate because there are starving children in Africa tonight." Of course, my cleaning my plate helps them out not one bit but it is a mindset of waste not want not. Obesity as a national epidemic is like something out of the Time Machine. Fat, happy and in the cross hairs...

about 5 years ago my mom told me there were starving kids in America! She had heard it from Jane Fonda. I almost split my pants laughing. Fact is, we don't have 'starving' kids here. Even the worst crackhead's kids are eating better then most in India, Haiti, etc..

The reason stores and restaurants done give awy old food is liability. I used to do some work for Hosea's feed the homeless foundation in the 90's ( or as it's known now, feed the lazy bums in Cobb county), and he had creative 'methods' of getting around this issue. When I used to work @ Kroger's in college, they used to take the food that was about to turn. give it to the deli or 'chefs' dept and they would cook it up and repackage it as a 'meal to go'.

I still disagree about whether the USA is a notion of 'excess'. 'Access', absolutely!

The width and breadth of your profound ignorance is astounding.

forgive me, but I'd rather not hear about USA's 'starving' masses from one who has chosen to leave.

There is a difference between 'hungry' and 'starving'. Since your travels abroad have kept you at a safe distance from actual 'starving' children, I will overlook your naivete. Anyone who has travelled to India or Africa knows full well the true definition of 'starving'.

AP Online
04-16-1998
ATLANTA (AP) _ Jane Fonda apologized Thursday for telling a United Nations group that parts of Georgia resemble a Third World country, with children ``starving to death'' and people living in ``tar-paper shacks.''

Ms. Fonda's remarks hit a raw nerve with Gov. Zell Miller, a native of the north Georgia mountains. He fired off a scathing letter to the actress, saying her comparison was ``simply ridiculous and reflects a prejudice I am shocked to learn you hold.''

I've traveled to both, quite a few times..we have planes here in Europe.

So, just to make sure I'm understanding you. You really believe that there are NO starving children in America. Starving isn't just little black babies with protruding bellies. That is the classic petit bourgeois definition. Starving is not getting the adequate nutrients, and slowly dying as a result from the developing disease process.This goes on in many areas of the country.

One thing you have to understand is because you appear to live the good life, that isn't a license to ignore the obvious problems. For some reason you appear to be hung up about me moving to a more enlightened area of the world. I understand you being a tad jealous...i hear it all the time. My decision to live here doesn't mean I don't see what is going on over there. Once again, it is a tad ignorant on your part to believe otherwise. My comments about America hold just as must water as someone who lives there.

Nutrition and calorie intake is a funny thing. Too little and you get sick. Too much and one becomes you. That is your choice. But the obesity pandemic is just as dangerous, and just as much of a killer as tobacco. Your idea of excess being "cool" and "So American" is going to kill many of your fellow fatties.That is just the nutritional excess.The other forms of excess are slowly going to go the way of past cultures that didn't learn the important lessons. I could post all the stats, the pics, and the evidence. But that would take up my valuable time. You know what they say about genetic predisposition when it is combined with an excessive lifestyle.

Jane was right. She was right about the war as well...

Interesting that Ms Fonda has issued 2 'apologies', no? One, where she corrected herself saying there were 'starving' kids in North Georgia, and one where she apologised for going to Vietnam on 20/20..So that's 2 times she admitted she 'might be wrong'. Something I have yet to see you do.

As mentioned previously, I have worked with Hosea's charity, and even the great Hosea Williams wasn't deluded enough to believe there are 'starving' kids here. But, since you have been on those 'planes' in Europe with Mr Tebow, I guess I'll take your 'word' for it.

Your semantics about 'nutrients' in judging actual real 'starving' people is telling..Saying any child in the USA is truly 'starving' is, in fact, a great insult to real starving kids everywhere else. To me, that's like saying there's 'poverty' or 'poor' people here..Well, of course, by our standard, yes. But any grown person that isn't trolling because they had thier feelings hurt in a political debate can objectively look at the big picture: and our 'poor' folks would be considered quite 'well off' in comparison to many,many other truly destitute living humans all over the world.

I suggest you get back on some of those 'planes' you speak of and take another look.

Forgive me but I adore a good cat fight! But what are these plane thingies ya'll are talking about? Is it like a train?