Nicolas Cage blames his assistant after running up $230 in late charges for rented DVDs

He has been notoriously late paying his over $6 million tax bill to the IRS.

And it appears that he is no different when it comes to video rentals.

It was recently reported that Nicolas Cage owed his local video shop $224.48 in late fees.



But after the store took to Facebook in an effort to get Cage's attention this week, the Ghostrider star called this morning to apologize and blamed the mix up on his assistant.



More money woes: Nicolas Cage has failed to return some DVD's to his local video shop in LA and now owes them over $200



The 48-year-old had failed to return the Judy Garland musical drama, A Star is Born, and The King of Comedy, starring Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis, to the Old Bank DVD store in Downtown L.A.

The actor rented them in April, and four months after they were due to be returned the store made a humorous appeal on Facebook in an effort to recoup their losses.



'If anyone happens to run into Nicolas Cage wandering the neighborhood, please kindly remind him he's had [our DVD's] for a few months,' they wrote on the social networking page.

'Old Bank DVD is not responsible if he gets mad, bursts into flames and beats you up though.

Movie buff: The actor has failed to return Judy Garland's musical drama, A Star is Born, and The King of Comedy, starring Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis

Today Cage called the store in person after the oversight came to his attention and the owner told TMZ that the actor 'was cool and didn't take any offense to the store calling him out on Facebook.'

And they chose to be forgiving charging just $20 in late fees per movie.



The store posted an update on its Facebook page saying: 'As a token of our appreciation for all the fine work Mr. Cage has done in film, with any rental this weekend, our customers may also pick one Nicolas Cage movie for free.'

'And that's like half our store, I mean seriously, that's one hard working actor ;-). Welcome back anytime Nic.'

Scrorsese fan: It is hardly surprising the Cage is a De Niro and Scorsese fan



Nicolas was famously chased by the U.S. taxman in 2009 for over $6 million in unpaid income tax after c ourt records revealed that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - the U.S. taxman - filed court paper stating that the star owed them $6,257,000.

Cage, who was earning up to $40m per movie in 2009, settled a tax dispute the year before when he paid thousands in back taxes and interest.

The actor, best known for his action roles in Con Air and The at the time refused to comment on the tax problem.

The over $6 million in unpaid taxes stemmed from 2007 when he made four films, including National Treasure and Ghost Rider.

Deep trouble: Nicolas was famously chased by the U.S. taxman in 2009 for over $6million in unpaid income tax

He later went on to sell several homes and a very expensive comic book for over $US2m to help pay the debt.



The actor has been labelled one of the craziest big spenders in Hollywood.

He has been accused of splashing out millions on property and blowing his fortune on fast cars, jewellery, yachts, castles and a collection of shrunken heads and dinosaur skulls.

And the his troubles don't just stop with his fiances.

He was in trouble with the law last year in April after a drunken argument with his wife Alice Kim in New Orleans, though charges including battery were later dropped.

After April 16, Cage was arrested for allegedly grabbing his wife and disturbing the peace.

But the New Orleans District Attorney's Office later decided to not press charges against Cage as investigators did not have enough evidence to move forward with the case.