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The REAL reason Nic Cage sold his comics...?

Started by HighVoltage,

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HighVoltage

HighVoltage

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Nicolas Cage caused his own financial ills, ex-business manager says

 

By Alan Duke, CNN

 

November 18, 2009 9:39 a.m. EST

 

 

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.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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And where was I when he was throwing these lavish parties? Where's my cut?

 

Hey Dan, still got the Action #1 you showed me in Baltimore?

 

Oops sorry, thought this was a PM.

 

doh!

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HighVoltage

HighVoltage

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He sold his comics long before these events.

I was told by the comic broker that someone broke into his home and stole comics, and LM told him to get rid of them.

 

Don't think he'd sold his comics before 2001...

 

"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."

 

The point is - Maybe the 'books stolen' reasoning wasn't the real reasoning.

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JuliusSeizure

JuliusSeizure

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Is it even possible for someone like Nicolas Cage (or Antoine Walker) to be "financially ruined". Do the people who write these articles understand what "financial ruin" means? I'm never going to see Nicolas Cage applying for a mortgage in a lower-middle-class neighborhood like mine and I'm never going to run into him at the dollar store or even Target. There's a world of difference between, "I used to live like a billionaire, but I couldn't really afford it so now I just live like a multi-millionaire" and anything you could call "financial ruin". Heck, I'm far from "ruined" and I can't imagine that anyone like Cage could conceivably fall as far as the highest lifestyle I can and do aspire to.

 

Heck, spend it if ya got it, but these articles (and lawsuits) are real head-scratchers for me. But, I'm not knowedgeable about celebrity finance, am I missing something?

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hockey&comicsguy

hockey&comicsguy

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Sheesh.

 

I always thought that if I were uber rich I would definitely buy things I wanted that would seem ridiculous to most. For instance, I would definitely buy an Aston Martin Vanquish. Would definitely buy a yacht, maybe a Burger yacht even. Would buy a sick home, etc....

 

However, aside from a "fun" car and a nice everyday car, I never thought I would be the kind of person who would need 20 cars and 5 yachts and 10 residences. I'll never understand that.

 

I guess if you have 9 zeroes in your bank accounts it wouldn't be so much of an issue but if I were to be fortunate enough to bag 60 mil or so in a lottery, there's just no way I would ever buy multiples of everything. 'cept comics :grin:

 

In the end, no matter how much money you have it all comes down to making good decisions. And when you hear these stories of the super rich going teets up, you can almost always attribute it to extremely bad decisions tied to funny money purchases. I'm not talking about investing in a company or something that seems legit and getting hosed. I'm talking about Cage and countless sports athletes who just buy too many toys and it ends up killing them.

 

 

edit: In 2008 the NBA Players Association did a report that found that up to 60% of former NBA players wind up bankrupt within 5 years of their retirement! :o

 

Rumor: Shaquille O'Neal spends upwards of $156,000 per month on his residences (mortgages/rent)....I'm sorry but if I am making 30 million a year, whatever house I live in is going to be paid for in full, up front. I can't imagine making a mortgage payment when I am cashing checks for hundreds of thousands every other week.

 

Recently: Antoine Walker. Earned $110,000,000 during his NBA career (not including off the court endorsements) His arse is in court now, with debt rumored to be in the millions. What did he do? According to sources he was supporting upwards of 70 people (friends and family) in some way. He also bought lots of expensive cars and watches.

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

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The point is - Maybe the 'books stolen' reasoning wasn't the real reasoning.

 

Do adults ever make any decision for exactly one reason? Most often people do things for two, three, or fifteen various reasons. Shifting capital from the comics to someplace else was also certainly on his mind, but the theft does seem a likely trigger. His house wasn't broken into, the comics were stolen by a houseguest at a party. Cage says he never wanted to lock his best books in a vault, he wanted to share and display them...to have someone you opened your house up to take advantage of your open attitude would cause anybody to close down a lot.

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Fedoraman

Fedoraman

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not sure its beer wallet, the guy has made a hundred million in his career. but his spending was downright compulsive.

 

I think we have all fallen into this trap at one time or another - just not to this scale...

 

 

BTW, HighVoltage - I love your avatar 973.jpg

 

Phantasm scared the holy sheeet out of me as a kid. :eek:

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hockey&comicsguy

hockey&comicsguy

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I think we have all fallen into this trap at one time or another - just not to this scale...

 

 

I agree. It just makes me wonder if I were super rich would 1 Bentley be enough? Would I really need 5 Bentleys? Can you ride in 5 cars at the same time? Would I own a Rolex? Sure. Would I own 3 of them? Possibly. Would I own 20 of them? I'm thinking NO.

 

But you gotta be making crazy money to even understand some of this so who knows. At least I would like to think that as my bank accounts grew, there would not be a direct correlation in which the degree of common sense I had shrank.

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

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I agree. It just makes me wonder if I were super rich would 1 Bentley be enough? Would I really need 5 Bentleys? Can you ride in 5 cars at the same time? Would I own a Rolex? Sure. Would I own 3 of them? Possibly. Would I own 20 of them? I'm thinking NO.

 

I can't read 5,000 comics at a time, but I own that many because I enjoy buying them. He's likely got that same collecting mentality and enjoys hunting, he's just doing it for bigger game.

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