Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette split up nine months after they first married, spent five years publicly acting like a real couple, filed for divorce this year--and then abruptly rescinded the divorce papers and tried to reconcile their so-called "sham" marriage.
Now, the couple say it's over this time. Really. Arquette filed for divorce from the Oscar-winning actor Friday in a Los Angeles court, citing "irreconcilable differences."
"After several months of attempting to resolve their differences...[Cage and Arquette] acknowledge that divorce proceedings have begun due to irreconcilable differences," Cage's publicist said in a statement, adding that the decision to divorce was "mutual and respectful."
"Mr. Cage and Ms. Arquette are asking the media to please respect their privacy during this difficult time."
The move marks what appears to be the final twist in an on-again, off-again relationship that ended soon after it began. Just nine months after their April 1995 marriage, Cage and Arquette split up, but they continued to make public appearances together. Last fall, they even starred together in the paramedic drama Bringing Out the Dead.
Then in February, Cage filed for divorce from Arquette, but he withdrew his divorce petition in an attempt to reconcile with her.
Now, it's Arquette's turn to file the papers. According to the (latest) divorce petition, Cage and Arquette divvied up their estate in a postmarital agreement dating back to 1996, when the couple first split.
Their mercurial (un)coupledom officially goes back to the 1980s. Cage dated Arquette once back in 1989, but she went on to link up with actor Christian Slater, and she had a son, Enzo, from her relationship with musician Paul Rossi. Arquette then reunited with Cage in 1994, and the pair were married.
For a moment, at least, the marriage had united two show-biz families: Cage, 36, is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola, and Arquette, 32, is the sister of actress Rosanna Arquette and actor-goofball David Arquette. Cage and Arquette have no children together.
Arquette, meanwhile, currently can be seen playing the love interest to Adam Sandler in Little Nicky. And Cage is starring in the upcoming holiday movie, Family Man, the story of a fast-living bachelor who finds out what his life could've been like--if he were happily married.