Nic Cage famously “went broke” (ie, had to sell some of his stuff) due to wild spending on castles, Lamborghinis, dinosaur skulls, and cobra anti-venom (note: none of those things are exaggerations), and today Yahoo has an article about him recently paying back $6 million he owed the IRS. Good for him, that. But for our purposes, the part of the story that’s even better is at the bottom, where Yahoo runs down a few of Nic Cage’s career “highlights.” I’ve covered all of these stories before, but a trip down memory lane is always welcome, and it’s fun to see them all in one place:

- [In April 2011] According to police, Cage was heavily intoxicated and violent, arguing with his wife, Alice Kim, in a tattoo parlor and on the street. Later, he punched a few cars.

- [In December 2010] While leaving a night club in Romania where he was promoting “Ghost Rider,” the actor exploded into a rage during an altercation with a companion.
Cage was taped screaming: “I thought we were brothers, man,” and “I’ll die in the name of honor.”

- During a chat with David Letterman to promote his film “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” Cage told the story of how he and his cat, Louis, did psychedelic mushrooms together.
He said that after a daylong staring contest with the cat he “had no doubt that he was my brother.”

 - His third marriage was to Alice Kim, who he met in 2004 when she waited on his table at a Los Angeles restaurant. The two have one child together– a son named Kal-El, which was Superman’s name as a child. [Maybe I shouldn't find this part as funny as I do, but it cracks me up every time. "Hey there, Ah'm Nic Cage, an this here's my son, Peter Parker Robocop Cage III. He's named after his Godfather, a pet iguana I bought from Lorenzo Lamas."]

- Most people don’t know that Cage is a huge fan of comic books [Really? Because he named his son Superman.]. In fact, he has a tattoo of Ghost Rider on his arm and he developed a six-issue illustrated series called “Voodoo Child” with his son Weston. Set in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina, the story focuses on a child who puts a voodoo curse on his soul before he is murdered by secessionist soldier.

- According to Charlie Sheen, Cage once helped him smuggle cocaine onto a plane and came up with the term “goddess.” During his show in Columbus, Ohio, Sheen said: “We’re at this after-party and Nic Cage is over at the corner and he’s showing a girl his watch,” Sheen explained. “It was dark, but I knew exactly what he was doing. He has his wrist down here … So she just kind of pokes him in the chest and walks away. And his response was ‘Well there goes a goddess, an absolute f***ing goddess.’” [Yahoo]

I guess it says a lot about me that I found that last anecdote the most relatable. I mean come on, who hasn’t played the old “You know what time it is? It’s six o’COCK” gag? Okay, with me it was more like five o’cock, but who’s counting.