Rupert's middle-age eagle has landed

While other men deal with the vagaries of middle age by dumping their wife for a younger model or investing in a new set of wheels, eccentric actor Rupert Everett plans to have his head tattooed.

“I think it’s my mid-life crisis,” says the Ampleforth-educated actor, 48, soon to be seen as the headmistress in the movie remake of St Trinian’s. “I’ve always wanted to have a tattoo and so I’m going to have one.

It’s going to be a double-headed eagle and it’s going to be on the back of my head,” adds Everett, who is currently sporting a new shaven-headed, woolly-hatted look completed with a pair of sweat pants – a far cry from his former Versace-clad elegant image.

Of the eagle tattoo, he enthuses to GQ magazine: “I like the sym­bolism of it looking both ways and it also represents the Romanovs [the former royal family of Russia] whom I love.”

Suggestions that Everett should go for a more discreet design are poo-pooed. “Sod that. And anyway, I can always let my hair grow and then no one will see it.”Isn’t that rather defeating the object?

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?