The Exotic Pets Nicolas Cage Has Owned Might Surprise You
Nicolas Cage is certainly an eccentric personality, known for his spending sprees on seemingly frivolous items. He has spent millions on houses, at one point owning 15 properties, cars, divorces, exotic animals and historical artifacts, including a $276,000 dinosaur skull (via LAD Bible). Also among his purchases have been numerous animals, a laundry list of creatures over the course of his adult life, some more exotic (and potentially dangerous) than others. The method actor known for having eaten a live cockroach on camera in the 1988 film “Vampire’s Kiss,” is an animal lover.
Cage purchased an octopus, which he credits for having helped his acting career, for a staggering $150,000. He also owned two albino king cobras, Moby and Sheba, which he bought for a combined $276,000 (via Celebrity Pets) and, according to LAD Bible, was also rumored to have owned a shark and crocodile, too, but was forced to give them all up as part of a $14 million settlement with the IRS on unpaid taxes.
As for the cobras specifically, “They were not happy,” said Cage in an interview with The New York Times Magazine. “They would try to hypnotize me by showing me their backs, and then they’d lunge at me,” though he also said, “animals are fun places to get inspiration” for performances.
Will the new 'Tiger King' own a tiger of his own soon?
The 56-year-old actor recently got married, for the fifth time, to 26-year-old Riko Shibata, in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Cage lives (via TMZ). This is significant because Cage is the newly-anointed “Tiger King,” scheduled to portray the documentary’s central character, Joe Exotic, in a scripted series for Amazon, according to CNET. Bonus: Cage can actually own a tiger in the state of Nevada.
There currently is no active federal designation which denies personal ownership of wildlife in this country, while each state also has its own respective laws and regulations. Along with Nevada, the states of Alabama and North Carolina also have no active bans, while 13 states have partial bans, including Florida, Louisiana and Minnesota (via Michigan State University’s Animal Law site).
If the Netflix documentary “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” taught us anything, it’s that tigers need to be properly contained, or left in their natural habitats. Unfortunately, that probably won’t stop a millionaire celebrity from getting what he or she wants.
There remains a possibility that one of the most-method of actors could very well jump in and prepare for his role as Exotic and add to his pet collection with a tiger. Will owning an actual tiger help him dive deeper into the role? Will he care for it like a valued pet? We will certainly have to wait and see. Cage is famously unpredictable, as an artist and a person.
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