Which Hollywood legend is joining Downton Abbey?

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Posted by Gerry Kiernan

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January 31st 2012 at 14:56

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She’s won an Oscar. And a Golden Globe. And now Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment, The Apartment) will join the cast to begin filming the third series of Downton next month.
 


The Americans are coming! And Shirley MacLaine is one of them.

  
MacLaine, 77, will play new character Martha Levinson, Lady Grantham’s mother. Expect verbal sparks to fly between her and Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess. We can’t wait for the withering put downs and undoubted clever digs at nouveau riche Americans.

“My late grandfather directed Shirley MacLaine in Gambit in 1966 so it is a delight for me that she will be joining us on Downton Abbey,” said series producer Gareth Neame.

Downton Abbey has been feted as much in the US as it has here, winning six Emmys and a Golden Globe. “It is so exciting to have an actress of Shirley MacLaine’s stature joining our brilliant Downton Abbey cast,” said Laura Mackie, ITV’s director of drama. “It is a tribute to the show’s success on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The second series is currently being shown in the US and its audience is up 30% on the first series.

Rumour has it that more American relatives of Lady Grantham may join the show. Which American actors would you like to see in Downton and why?

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