National treasure? More like national liability.
Just a week after word broke that Nicolas Cage has defaulted on a $2 million loan comes news that Uncle Sam is now among those bringing the hammer down on the, last we checked, rather prolific actor.
Over the summer, the IRS quietly placed a tax lien of nearly $6.26 million on Cage's New Orleans properties after the actor flat-out failed to pay income taxes in 2007 (the same year, incidentally, that he raked in some serious back-end profits from Ghost Rider and National Treasure: Book of Secrets).
As if that weren't bad enough, the IRS obtained a second lien over yet more unpaid taxes, this time for income earned between 2002 and 2004. That lien, as the New Orleans Times-Picayune first reported back in August, was for an additional $360,545.84.
Not surprisingly, Cage put two of his properties on the market this spring and was forced to sell off one of his many castles. The recession hits hard, folks. Still, where's Jerry Bruckheimer when you really need him?
Maybe Wesley Snipes could have a word, one cash-strapped action star to another?
—Additional reporting by Whitney English
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Catch up on Nicolas Cage's money woes.