The 1940 Tudor had failed to generate any bids in April when it was offered at the county courthouse steps in Pomona. Six loans totaling $18 million encumbered the house, which the actor had decorated in a style one local real estate agent dubbed "frat-house bordello." Among personalized touches were garish room colors, three dozen bronze wall sconce holders made from a cast of the Oscar winner's arm and hundreds of elaborately framed comic-book covers lining the walls....The Colcord-designed house sits on an acre, has a central tower, a custom wine cellar, a 35-seat home theater, six bedrooms, nine bathrooms and a swimming pool.
...May Ormerod Harris, a major USC benefactor, commissioned the home; then it sold to banker Stanley Stalford in the early 1960s, Parsons said. Yuban-brand coffee heirs were the next inhabitants before the estate transferred to a series of celebrity owners: Dean Martin, Tom Jones and Cage...
Although Cage is reported to have earned $40 million in 2009 alone, he's suing his former manager for collecting outsized fees and giving ruinous advice. For his part, the ex-manager claims Cage engaged on a "spending binge of epic proportions", noting that in 2008 the actor had owned "15 palatial homes around the world, four yachts, an island in the Bahamas, a private Gulfstream jet and millions of dollars' worth of art and jewelry."
Doctor Housing Bubble observes that several banks, which had written $18 million in six different loans on the house, took a $7.5 million haircut on the deal.
Which goes to show you that no one -- not you or me, not a Hollywood actor, not even the richest and most prosperous country on Earth -- can spend beyond their means for long.
Which is a lesson the modern Democrat Party apparently never learned.
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