Rebecca Tyrrel: Rupert Grint owns a swan-shaped pedalo, a hovercraft and an ice-cream van
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Who knew that Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, lives in a Hertfordshire mansion with its own bespoke ice rink?
Grint, whose net wealth is estimated at £24m (a cool million for every year of his young life), seems an absolutely wizard investor. He has other properties in the county and beyond, but lives at the one he bought for more than £3m a few years ago.
What a fantasy paradise it all sounds – although he has yet to purchase a Neverland-ish ferris wheel, carousel or pirate ship. He has a lake upon which to put the latter, however, and has so far installed a swan-shaped pedalo and a £26,000 (approx) hovercraft. "It's quite strange to drive, but I have fun with it," reports Rupert of the hovercraft, although he could have meant the swan-pedalo.
He has quite a taste for unusual vehicles. He also owns an ice-cream van, although he no longer keeps it stocked with cones and flakes, and one of the few times it was used was on the last day of Harry Potter shooting, when he served ices to tearful colleagues. "It's not the most practical vehicle," he explains. "It's only got one seat… It's basically a kitchen."
There is no evidence as to whether he uses the rink more than the van, but the troubled later lives of so many child actors suggest he probably should. For every Jodie Foster and Drew Barrymore, there are scores of Mark Lesters and Macaulay Culkins. Going on current form it looks as if Grint's adult career will take off. He has been well reviewed in a couple of post-Potter films, while there may be absolutely nothing ominous at all in the fact that his next screen role will be as that paragon of hapless failure, Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards.
If, however, the movies should dry up, Rupert will be thankful if he can fall back on ice-skating and have a head-start in the Dancing On Ice competition. Though he would be foolish to restrict his horizons, because a fraction of his fortune would buy a Center Parcs-style simulation of the Australian jungle in which to acclimatise himself for I'm a Celebrity… Get me Out of Here!. He might also consider installing an underground ballroom, replete with animatronic models of Brucie and Tess Daly, and a robotic Len Goodman shouting "Sevvv-unnn!", or even "Sevvv-errus!" – as in Snape.
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