Rolls-Royce are trying to appeal to the broader end of the market with their new entry level Rolls, The Ghost. The Ghost will retail for a mere $245,000.

Rolls CEO Tom Purves tells Bloomberg the Ghost is “for customers who have never had a Rolls-Royce before,” which was enough to ruffle feathers in Mayfair. Now Rolls is marketing the car to automotive bloggers and others who can’t afford it via — the horror! — a free iPhone app. What’s next? Test drives through the Chili’s parking lot?

Download the app and you can configure your Ghost in more than 1,400 different ways, providing no end of ways to kill time at work.  Customers and commoners alike can choose from among 12 colors with names like “darkest tungsten” and “claret,” which us plebeians call “maroon.”  You’ve also got three wheel styles to consider, including liberally chromed 20-inchers. Then you’ve got to decide which of the five wood veneers you want. They include “Dark Wenge” and “Malabar,” two names more appropriate for the villain in a Dutch re-dub of a James Bond film.

Nicolas Cage is suing his former manager Samuel Levin for $20 million for gross negligence of his finances and for lining his own pockets at the actor’s expense. Cage is moving to sue the former manager due to the actor’s sudden cash crunch, which includes a boat load of debt and over $7 million in back taxes. But Levin has a story of his own to tell, and it involves excess on a scale that we can hardly imagine. According to Levin, the actor purchased a scad of really expensive stuff. Like a $7.5 million island in the Bahamas, 15 mansions, four yachts, a Gulfstream, 47 pieces of art and even nine Rolls-Royce Phantoms.

[Source: The Sun]

Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves hinted last year that they might be introducing an electric car, and now it has been leaked that the electric version will be of their flagship Phantom. The new electric Phantom is planned for late 2010 which will give them enough time to have everything in perfect place for 2012 London Olympics.

Price is still unknown but expect it to be more than the gas powered version which is currently priced at $380,000.