The still-feisty Shirley MacLaine (who once hung out with rat-packers like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in Las Vegas in its heyday) fessed up in an interview that when she met up with Maggie Smith on the set of “Downton Abbey” recently, the winsome twosome reminisced about their “lives & lovers” and the “business and directors”.
Oh, boy, would I have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the sound stage that day, folks!
Ms. MacLaine (Warren Beatty’s sister, by the way) was catapulted into the news the past few weeks when it was announced that she was cast to play the crusty role of an American Divorce on the upstairs-downstairs-style hit drama “Downton Abbey” which has been taking America by storm.
In fact, when the top-rated pot-boiler (night-time soap?) kicks off its third season tonight on PBS, Ms. MacLaine’s character is expected to start ruffling feathers from the get-go when she sashays into the uppercrust environs to mix-and-mingle with the British Aristocrats and interact with their curious circle of snoopy wait staff lurking around every dark corner of the historic castle.
The aging actress – who won an Academy Award for “Terms of Endearment” – made no bones about it, though. While the PBS drama may be challenging, film work can't compare to the stage.
“There’s nothing like it. Nothing,” she stressed in no uncertain terms to her interviewer (who must have been all ears).
Would she contract to perform in a Broadway role once again in the future?
In so many words the comic genius acknowledged that she savored life’s pleasures too much, perhaps, to take on the task because - after all - a Broadway production requires so much discipline.
Maybe if there was a project that focused on the mystical – and a past life scenario or two – she might be tempted, do 'ya think?
Break a leg at The Abbey, Shirley!
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