American recording artist Taylor Swift once sang, "The players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." It's a powerful message, and one used by the congressman with the reddest walls and most pronounced abdominals to explain his Downton Abbey-inspired office. Allow Illinois rep. Aaron Schock to explain.
Professional bachelor George Clooney and fiancé Amal Alamuddin are reportedly getting married in Highclere Castle near London — aka THE Downton Abbey. It's the same castle as depicted on the popular television series about British people and Maggie Smith telling each other secrets and being very dramatic while sitting down.
Everyone, from the dandiest Diddy to the poorest party spangler’s daughter loves Downton Abbey. Every week, we gather ‘round our television sets to watch our favorite characters die. “Why can’t I be a servant in the post-Edwardian era?” we cry as we watch the sallow-cheeked wait staff eat up screen time that should be devoted to the Grantham family’s glamorous problems. “Oh,” we gasp, when Lady Mary emerges in yet another devastating satin gown, “I wish I were a maid!”
The National Portrait Gallery commissioned a painting of Dame Maggie Smith that makes the Dowager Countess look like a condescending mummy overlord.
It was a concern about being typecast that ultimately led Jessica Brown Findlay, AKA Downton Abbey's Lady Sybil Crawley, to exit in dramatic fashion from the popular series midway into the third season.
Downton Abbey's Matthew Crawley, somewhat known for his portrayal of British actor Dan Stevens in a tedious, long-term project known as everyday life, surfaced recently looking way different than he once did, and people could not believe it. He used to look the one way and now he looks very much another. How had it happened, and why, and could it be undone?
Downton Abbey? More like Show About a Black Person Abbey. Looks like everyone's favorite program about dramatic white people (of the non-Real Housewives variety) is set to introduce its first black character in the upcoming fourth season.
Ever wonder how Dame Maggie Smith manages to play her part as Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess so perfectly?
It's Friday afternoon. You've just about finished pretending to do actual work, and you want to go home. Now.
The third season of Downton Abbey, ITV's counterrevolutionary paean to inequality and feudalism, is currently airing in the United States, where it will disappoint and frustrate the fans who are still sticking around in the hopes it might recapture some of the magic of the first season. Spoiler alert: it doesn't, and as with the second season I highly recommend that you don't invest any time or emotional energy in this new one, which doesn't even have a crowd-pleasing Christmas-special payoff.
Is your main quibble with Downton Abbey that you have never been to Downton Abbey? You're in luck: NBC is developing a spinoff of the show set right here in the U.S. of America. And Julian Fellowes, the Fellowes behind Downton, is writing and producing it.
Does Dan Stevens, Crawley family heir Cousin Matthew, dream of a whole new world? According to Daily Mail, Stevens bloody well intends to leave Downton Abbey at the end of the third, and current, series.
Warning: There are spoilers below for a show that won't officially air in the U.S. until next year.
