Skip to footer

George Clooney will reportedly appear in a 'Downton Abbey' charity sketch

Clooney will reportedly play a guest at a wedding at the 'Downton Abbey' home. The fifth season of 'Downton Abbey' is debuting in the UK on Sept. 21 and in January in the US.

|
Giuseppe Aresu/AP
George Clooney will reportedly appear in a 'Downton Abbey' sketch that will raise money for charity.

The British hit series “Downton Abbey” will soon be playing host to another famous face.

Actor George Clooney will reportedly be appearing in a charity sketch that is set in the world of the show, according to the Guardian. The actor would reportedly be at a wedding at Downton Abbey as a guest. The sketch would be part of a fundraiser called Text Santa that will be on ITV, the network on which “Downton” airs in the UK.

An ITV spokesperson said that Clooney would be in a sketch that would air at Christmas but that he would not be in the full holiday episode of the show, which is usually the season finale and which has traditionally aired on Christmas Day, according to the Guardian.

According to the Telegraph, 100 percent of donations made to Text Santa by viewers go to six UK charities that are chosen each year. 

ITV wouldn’t reveal which “Downton” cast members Clooney acts with for the sketch, but according to Guardian writer Martin Williams, reports say that "Downton" actors Hugh Bonneville and Michelle Dockery were also part of the sketch. Bonneville portrays “Downton” patriarch Robert, the Earl of Grantham, while Dockery plays eldest “Downton” daughter Mary Crawley.

Clooney would be the newest American cast member to appear at “Downton” – actors Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti previously played the mother and brother of Robert’s American wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), respectively.

Bonneville and Clooney starred in this year’s movie “The Monuments Men,” which was also directed by Clooney, and Daisy Wyatt of The Independent wrote that Clooney “is said to be friendly with” Bonneville and is also “reportedly a big fan of” the show.

“Downton Abbey” is set to kick off its fifth season, which is set in 1924, on Sept. 21 in the UK and on Jan. 4 in the US.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to George Clooney will reportedly appear in a 'Downton Abbey' charity sketch
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2014/0911/George-Clooney-will-reportedly-appear-in-a-Downton-Abbey-charity-sketch
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe