If you're like millions of Americans, you're currently going through "Downton Abbey" withdrawal. The show wrapped up its smash hit second season on PBS in February 2012 and the new season isn't expected to begin in the US until January 2013.
However, if you're down for spoilers, you're in luck. The Orlando Sentinel managed to get some details about Shirley MaLaine's time on the show and some other juicy tidbits out of "Masterpiece Theater" executive producer Rebecca Eaton. MacLaine joins the cast in Season 3 as Lady Cora's (Elizabeth McGovern) affluent mother.
As fans hoped, MacLaine will go toe-to-toe with Maggie Smith -- and she holds her own against the Dowager Countess. It seems the lords and ladies of Downton are in need of some extra cash. Enter MacLaine, who Eaton said is doing "wonderful" scenes with Smith.
"Maggie [is] barely restraining her sneer in having to deal with this American," Eaton said. "Maggie Smith is a handful, it's true. She's very difficult. She knows her worth, and she's tricky on the set, but she delivers when the time comes."
Rumors of cast changes for "Downton Abbey" Seasons 4 and 5 have run rampant for the last few months. According to TVLine, most of the stars have reportedly signed on, except Smith, Siobhan Finneran and Jessica Brown Findlay.
That news makes this spoiler all the more troubling: Eaton said somebody will die. "[S]omebody pretty key in the cast, [is] unfortunately not going to make it," she said. "It's the 1920s now."
For more "Downton Abbey" spoilers, click over to the Orlando Sentinel.