"Downton Abbey" fans got some exciting news earlier today when it was announced that Academy Award winner and all-around beloved icon Shirley Maclaine will be joining the hit show on PBS for its third season.
Maclaine is to play the socialite mother of another American cast member, Elizabeth McGovern, who plays Lady Cora Grantham. It is assumed that Maclaine's character will be facing off against the acid-tongued Violet, played by Maggie Smith aka Professor McGonagall from the Harry Potter film series.
A five-time Oscar nominee, Maclaine finally won the Best Actress Oscar in 1982 for her hilarious and heartbreaking portrayal of Aurora Greenway in James L.Brooks' Best Picture-winning "Terms of Endearment."
Created by Oscar winner Julian Fellows (screenwriter of 2001's "Gosford Park") "Downton Abbey" centers on the scheming, meddling, and dangerous liasons among the Grantham and Crawley families and servants in pre-World War I England.
Ever since its debut in 2010, the hit drama series has won both the Emmy and Golden Globes Awards for Outstanding Miniseries or Made for Television Movie.
Season 3 of "Downton Abbey" is expected to air later this year in the U.K. and in the U.S. in spring 2013.
Ward Porrill has never seen "Downton Abbey" but plans to very soon.
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