Nobody wants Nicolas Cage's 'frat house bordello' mansion

There are so many sad stories these days about regular people losing regular homes for regular reasons. This isn't one of them. 

Nicolas Cage's Bel-Air mansion -- its decor described by one Realtor as "frat house bordello" -- went on the auction block Wednesday morning. It came off the block less than a minute later, after not a single soul on the Pomona courthouse steps jumped at its steal-of-a-deal $10.4-million opening price.

Now the lender gets it back. Actually, the lenders. The six outfits that hold the six loans Cage took out in 2005, 2007 and 2008 against the 11,817-square-foot property, which he bought in 1998 for about $7 million and tried to sell in  2007 for $35 million. And only lenders No. 1 and No.  2 have a real shot ...

... at getting any cash back when the place sells -- say adios to about $7.6 million, you kids at the end of the line.

For those not keeping track, the Southern California housing market crested somewhere around the end of 2005 or beginning of 2006. 

Oops.

In the mood for schadenfreude? That first link leads to lots more details about the loans, the lawsuit Cage has filed against his business manager, the money Cage was pulling in a year while he was taking out all these loans -- and the toy trains that circle through two bedrooms and the breakfast room.

[Updated, 10:35 a.m. April 8: Click here to see a photo gallery of the property.]

But brace yourself: With Dean Martin's 1974 addition of an entertainment complex, there's simply no room for the next occupant to install a tennis court. 

No wonder nobody bought it.

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photos: Nicolas Cage, left, attends Walt Disney Studios' WonderCon 2010 presentation at Moscone Center in San Francisco on April 3. His Bel-Air mansion, top and bottom right, reverted to the lenders after a failed auction on April 7. Credits: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty Images, left;  Everett Fenton Gidley, top and bottom right.

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Comments

[jja_American]

Now this is NEWS, at it's best. Cage hooks up with a food server at his hang out..Takes loan after loan and can't pay the note, his managers fault? NO Mr. Cage signed the papers ..I Hope..Go do something more lucrative,,Save the World, Mr Cage..You are in "Hollywood" you can do anything...so you think..

[Breton]

Nickey ! This is America- where is your entrepreneurial spirit?Just turn it into a bed & breakfast.

[CDZ from the Ministry]

@Breton -- Ha!! //cdz

[Lisa]

"In the mood for schadenfreude?"

As Herr Governor would say: "Das ist eine gute"! Haha!

[Cisco]

Turn it into a bed and breakfast??? Hell, it's already a bordello, so just hire Tiger's mistresses and you're in business...

[T4E2112]

He can't act, and it's clear he can't budget either.

[azm66]

If the pic of Cage is allegedly taken at Walt Disney Sdiego tudios' WonderCon 2010, then why is there a huge, and obvious wall with San Diego Comic Com plastered all over it?

[CDZ from the Ministry]

@azm66 -- Christie D'Zurilla here from the blog. The backdrop logo most likely has something to do with the fact that Comic-Con International is the parent company of WonderCon, and was using one event to promote the other.

Either that or there was a rip in the space-time continuum, and Nicolas Cage was photographed at an event, Comic-Con, that won't occur until July 2010.

//cdz

[Breton]

A "rip in the space-time continuum" ? I've had that before - it really hurts.(insert smiley face here)

[az66]

Ok. That makes sense. Comic-com parent company of wondercon... etc. But the whole time space continuum comment is really unnecessary, considering it doesn't say 2010 anywhere on the comic con logo in the pic, which, incidentally, is the same logo they used last year and the year before and the year before, etc.

[Breton]

Just having a a brief moment of levity officer.

[Brad]

poor nick...now he is stuck keeping all 15 houses...boo hoo

[margo]

Too bad....soo sad.... I should make so much money to have such troubles!!

[Greg Theakston]

The photo is clearly (marked) from the San Diego ComicCon.

[cdz from the ministry]

@Greg Theakston -- Christie D'Zurilla here from MOG. Dang, I thought we had this settled a year ago. Backread the comments for the explanation about the San Diego Comic-Con logo in the picture.

If you don't trust me, check out the photo at the link below, which clearly shows that the event backdrop contains logos for Comic-Con as well as Wondercon.

http://lat.ms/dH7WRp

Additionally, our Hero Complex reporter Geoff Boucher traveled to Wondercon in April 2010 and, among other things, blogged about Nicolas Cage being on a Wondercon panel -- the day before this post originally went live. A picture of Cage in front of this same dual-logo backdrop is included in that post, cropped in a way that reveals parts of both logos.

http://lat.ms/aNk8eb

Not sure what else I can say except, yes, I promise, the picture was taken in San Francisco.

//cdz