When Nicolas Cage bought two albino king cobras for $276,000 in 2005 (the equivalent of $455k/£338k today), he decided not to have their venom removed. Instead, the brave—or perhaps just crazy—star opted to keep anti-venom in his home as a safety precaution. The snakes, which he named Moby and Sheba, were so poisonous that anyone they bit would be dead within 15 minutes.

As a result, Cage kept his dangerous purchase a secret for three years before confessing all on The Late Show with David Letterman. He explained, “I have them behind two computer-locked doors [with] bullet-proof glass. I like to go in there in my red leather chair and drink wine and watch them as they watch me”.

However, Cage added that one of the snakes regularly tried to hypnotise him before lunging at him. He told Letterman, "After that, I say, ‘Goodnight kids,’ go upstairs and lie down and think about what just happened”.

As you'd expect, his neighbours were suitably horrified and threatened to sue, so Cage surrendered his deadly pets to a zoo.

Nicolas Cage's wild spending that blew his $150 million fortune