Saturday’s “Downton Abbey” panel for the Television Critics Association yielded spoilers for season three:
* Season two will span two years of the early 1920s.
* Lord Grantham will somehow lose all the family’s money (including the American funds brought into the Crawley family by the former Cora Levinson).
* The kissing Crawley cousins will find their marriage plans derailed when Mary accuses Matthew of being disloyal to the family.
* A dinner introducing Sybil and Branson’s parents to each other is disrupted by political differences.
* John Bates is still in stir as the season launches.
* Shirley MacLaine, who joins the cast next season as Cora’s visiting American mom, brought a story about her history with Maggie Smith. Per Entertainment Weekly:
MacLaine, 77, will play Martha Levinson, Cora’s American mother, who will clash wildly with Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess. Their rivalry goes way back in real life: MacLaine remembered that 40 years ago, when she and Smith met backstage at the Oscars after MacLaine had lost an award, Smith had remarked, “Do you know what you did, dear? You tucked right into that chocolate cake and said ‘Fuck it, I don’t care if I’m thin again.’”
Season three of “Downton” hits PBS Jan. 6.
Find EW’s story on the matter here.
