Cage’s ‘Weather Man’ rides out storm

Personal gales add strength

Nicolas Cage’s character in The Weather Man can no more control the problems in his fractured family than he can control the winds and snows that frost his city.

The dark comedy is about a man who can’t make things work with his estranged wife, disconnected son and boorish daughter, while he excels at a job he considers frivolous.

“ I’d been looking for some time to play in a family drama about the different things that can happen to people in divorce,” Cage says. “ But I didn’t want it to be a Hallmark card.”

The 41- year-old Oscar winner saw elements of himself in the hapless Dave Spritz, who playfully lobs a snowball at his ex- wife ( Hope Davis) and ends up hurting her eye.

“ Obviously, he’s been through a few marriages, so there’s a lot of his real life that I think he brought to the part,” Weather Man

director Gore Verbinski says.

The actorwas married to Medium actress Patricia Arquette for six years and brie I y to Lisa Marie Presley.

Married to third wife Alice since July 2004, Cage says The Weather Man, opening Friday, was a kind of therapy for his relationship with Presley.

“ I was channeling any kind of pain or residual feelings from my divorce that I’d gone through and try to turn it into a positive,” Cage says. “ It’s that feeling of wanting to keep a family together and trying to keep things from falling apart, which doesn’t always work.”

Cage’s weather man also has an awkward relationship with his father ( Michael Caine), an author whose accomplishments dwarf those of his son.

But Cage says he has solid relationships with his father, August Coppola, a literature professor, and his oldest son, 15- year-old Weston, from a relationship with model/ actress Kristina Fulton.

Cage says his relationship with Alice, a former waitress whom he describes as “ an angel,” grounds him. She gave birth to their son, Kal-el, Oct. 3.

“ I don’t think I could have done these last two or three movies if she wasn’t there,” says the star, nowworking with director Oliver Stone on a drama about Sept. 11.

“ I never really experienced that kind of support. It was the perfect dynamic to bring a child into the world.”

So what’s behind the name Kal-el, Superman’s birth name?

Cage, who took his stage surname from the Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage, says he has “ a warm spot in my heart” for comics, because that’s how he learned to read.

“ We wanted a name thatwas exotic, was American and stood for something good. So Kal-el was a name we came up with, and then Kal for short.”

By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY Twice-divorced: Cage knows which way the wind blows.