Foreclosures hit rich and famous

The rich and famous now have something in common with hundreds of thousands of middle and lower-class Americans: The bank is about to take their homes. Houses with loans of $5m or more will likely see a sharp rise in foreclosures this year, according to a RealtyTrac study. Just this week, a Tudor mansion in Bel-Air belonging to film star Nicolas Cage was in foreclosure auction and reverted to the lender. On Wednesday, Richard Fuscone, a former top Wall Street executive, declared personal bankruptcy, forestalling a foreclosure auction that had been scheduled this week on his 14-acre Westchester mansion. Last month a Manhattan condominium owned by Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori was sold in a foreclosure auction for $33.2m.