SPIDER VAN

SPIDERMAN star Tobey Maguire lives in a swish Beverly Hills mansion just down the road from his playboy pal Leo DiCaprio - but his grandfather Albert's own "home" is a scruffy old van.

While moneybags Maguire, 27, will net a total of $35 million playing the wall-climbing crime fighter in the planned sequels, Albert, 67, survives on a $1,150 a month social security cheque.

"I don't want any of his money," insists Albert, who is forced to shower at the local YMCA in Simi Valley, Los Angeles.

"I only want two things from Tobey: the chance to be a real grandfather to him and for him to show some of the movie scripts I've written to his Hollywood friends to see what they think.

"I would love to work but there aren't many jobs out there for a 67-year-old machinist."

The amazing secret life of Maguire's grandfather is the second amazing revelation about the hotshot actor's troubled family. Back in June the Sunday Mirror told how the young star who makes a living playing a crime fighter is the son of a convicted bank robber.

Tobey's dad Vincent turned to crime in 1993 after his sister died of cancer and left him to look after her two children as well as Tobey. But the hard-up chef's half-baked plan to relieve his local bank in Reseda, California, of thousands of dollars of dough backfired because he didn't bother to wear a mask and made his getaway on foot.

His grandfather last saw him at a special family screening of Spiderman earlier this year. "I got my picture taken with Tobey and Kirsten Dunst," reveals Maguire Senior. "We only talked for a few minutes because there were so many other family members who wanted to spend time with him.

"I've had a rough last 10 years. My daughter Theresa came down with ovarian cancer and I quit work to help her out.

"She didn't have any health insurance so I had to sell my house to help her out. When she was given only a few months to live, I took her to Mexico for a radical surgical procedure to try to save her life. But she died. My money just ran out and I ended up homeless.

"Sometimes I get so depressed being in this situation but the thought of Tobey's success keeps me going."

That success has helped the Spider-Man favourite earn the tag of Hollywood's new number one ladies' man, snaring some of the world's sexiest women in his web.

Friends say that since he shot to fame playing the wall-climbing superhero, Maguire, 27, has managed to trap a different babe each night. Among his recent conquests are Nicole Kidman, Christina Aguilera, Heather Graham, Spider-Man co-star Kirsten Dunst and Playboy Playmate Daphne Duplaix.

If anything his humble beginnings have made him all the more determined to become a successful actor. And when bigger name actors like Ewan McGregor, DiCaprio and Heath Ledger were being considered for the role of Spider-Man he worked extra hard to prove director Sam Raimi had made the right choice.

Tobey reveals: "I trained for five months, six days a week, anywhere from an hour and a half to four hours a day, doing a combination of gymnastics, yoga, martial arts, weights and running.

"I had a very specific diet and worked with a nutritionist who said I was working harder than most professional athletes."

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