Actor Nicolas Cage recently introduced the world to his new wife, Riko Shibata, stunning fans with their fashionable looks. However, many have pointed out that the two married relatively quickly! Well, Cage says that Shibata’s pet flying squirrels had something to do with it – that’s right!
Nicolas Cage And Flying Squirrels
Actor Nicolas Cage and Riko Shibata recently married in Las Vegas. While they’ve only walked the red carpet a few times in their short relationship, Cage has no problem telling how it all happened. Most recently, he regaled the tale while at the premiere of his new movie, Pig. “We met in Japan and I thought she was stunning when I met her. We had a lot in common,” the 57-year-old explained to Entertainment Tonight. “She likes animals, too, so I asked her, ‘Do you have any pets?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I have flying squirrels.’ She had two sugar gliders… I thought, ‘That’s it. This could work out.'”
Apparently, that’s all Cage and Shibata needed to know. While the two have a significant age gap between them, as Shibata is only 26, they say the love they felt was immediate and undeniable. After just over a year of dating, they had a “very small and intimate wedding at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas” on February 16, the actor’s representative said in early 2021.
“I’m quite excited to take a picture with her,” Cage told ET on the red carpet of Pig. After all, it’s the first time the two have been out together as a married couple!
Proposing To His Future Wife
Cage said that he and Shibata have actually needed to spend most of their relationship apart because of the coronavirus. “She left New York and went back to Kyoto, Japan, and I went back to Nevada, and I haven’t seen her for six months,” Cage said. “We’re really happy together, and we’re really excited to spend that time together, so I finally just said, ‘Look, I wanna marry you,’ and we got engaged on FaceTime.” After that, the actor needed to send the engagement ring through the mail! They have certainly done a lot for their love!
Sadly, Cage did have a bit of bad news at the Pig premiere. He revealed that he would no longer portray zookeeper Joe Exotic anymore. It seems that Amazon has canceled their dramatic adaptation of the story seen in the Netflix docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. “I read two excellent scripts, which I did think were excellent, but I think Amazon ultimately felt that it was material that had become past tense because it took so long for it come together,” Cage told Variety. “They felt at one point that it was lightning in a bottle, but that point has since faded into the distance and it’s no longer relevant.”
While this isn’t great news for those looking forward to a fictionalized version of Tiger King, it seems Cage has enough on his plate. We wish him congratulations on his new marriage!