Star-spangled Downton bags a big US catch

Downton Abbey, already a British institution, has become a staple in the US, winning Golden Globes and Emmys aplenty. So it should come as no surprise that the producers have hauled in a big US star for the next series.

Paul Giamatti, star of the film Sideways, is set to play Harold Levinson, brother of Cora, Countess of Grantham, alongside the other US import Shirley MacLaine, who plays Cora’s mother. As Simon Schama wrote in his review of Downton for the Daily Beast: “Nothing beats British TV drama for servicing the instincts of cultural necrophilia.”