UPDATE: Nic Cage

Hold on to your hats hunnies because Oscar winning actor and prolific property collector Nic Cage's real estate nightmare just got a little big worse. Just moments ago Your Mama received an unexpected missive from our trusted informant Junebug that Mister Cage and his financial peeps have decided to make one last ditch effort to sell his real estate white elephant in Bel Air, CA with a sealed bid sale.

Mister Cage first put his 11,817 square foot ivy covered residence on the market back in 2007 with an knee buckling and overly optimistic asking price of $35,000,000. Over the years the asking price has been reduced, sliced, diced and chopped until last week when it stood at $17,500,000, exactly half the original asking price but still nearly three times the $6,469,000 property records show he paid for the place back in 1998.

But alas, the lower (but still spine tinglingly high) asking price did not, apparently, encourage any deep pocketed buyers to open up their wallets and step up to the closing table to buy the legendary estate formerly owned by crooners Tom Jones and Dean Martin. According to information generously forwarded by Junebug, any and all sealed bids are scheduled to be reviewed on September 24, 2009 with the minimum bid for the 7 bedroom and 9 pooper property on Copa de Oro Road set at just $9,950,000. No babies, Your Mama's nubbins did not flub it while typing that figure, the minimum bid is indeed set at $9,950,000 or, looking at it from another angle, roughly 28% of the original asking price.

Dayum. No matter how you slice that real estate pie, chickens, that hurts.

Mister Cage has recently sold off a few pieces of his real estate empire including a schloss in Bavaria, an historic townhouse in Bath, England and although it is not reflecting on listing information, there are rumors floating around the New York City real estate world that he's negotiating a possible deal on his two unit pied a terre in New York City last listed at $9,750,000.