Shirley McClaine joins cast of Downtown Abbey

Don"t these Yanks just love the British Upper Class.......theyv"e just got to get in on the act.


Shirley MacLaine Joins Cast Of Downton Abbey

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MacLaine will do battle with Maggie Smith's character in
the hit TV series


7:10am UK, Tuesday January 31, 2012


Oscar winning actress Shirley MacLaine is to join the cast of Downton Abbey,
it has been revealed.


The Hollywood star will appear as the mother of Lady
Grantham - played by Elizabeth McGovern - in the third series of the ITV1
show.

Her character, Martha Levinson, will go head-to-head
with current matriarch Maggie Smith who plays the dowager Countess of
Grantham.


Julian Fellowes, Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville at
the Golden Globes



The 77-year-old actress, sister of Warren Beatty, won an Academy Award in
1983 for Terms Of Endearment.

She has starred in more than 50 films, including Gambit, Sweet Charity and
Steel Magnolias and has received six Oscar nominations in a career that spans
more than half a century.

MacLaine has also written several best-selling books.

Recruiting the high profile US actress is testament to the period drama's
success on the other side of the Atlantic.

Earlier this month, Downton Abbey won the award for best
television mini-series at the Golden Globes.

Gareth Neame, from Carnival Films which produces the show, said: "Julian
(Fellowes) has written another brilliant character in Martha Levinson, who will
be a wonderful combatant for Maggie Smith's dowager countess and we are excited
at the prospect of Shirley MacLaine playing her."

Filming on the new series of Downton Abbey begins next month.

I'm not really a fan of that show but I love Shirley MacLaine. She's a really really good actress.

Downtown Abbey is very very popular in America, they love the British traditions. I like Shirley as well, Sweet Charity is a favourite and the film with

Meryl Streep, Postcards from the edge was good.

welcome cheshire cat.

Meryl Streep is in the list of my top three favorite actresses.

cheshire cat wrote:Meryl Streep is in the list of my top three favorite actresses.

she is supposed to be brilliant in her latest Film as Margaret Thatcher.