‘Downton’ film was a dream
FIE on Brexit. Definitely forget Harry and Meghan. Britain’s big issue today is: More folka have seen “Downton Abbey” than Westminster Abbey.
Its creator, writer, wizard is Lord Julian Fellowes. Between His Lordship’s crisp accent and lousy cellphone, Prime Minister Boris John
son’s babble might’ve been clearer, but this much I got: “A long time I didn’t think the film would happen. It didn’t seem inevitable.
“I kept casting about for an idea. Then, a year and a half after the series, I read about a onetime olden days King George visit. It gave me the idea.
“You write notes, then redraft, then comes the casting process. The actors are all very successful now. Working everywhere. One’s on Broadway, one’s in a series, one’s making f ilms, another’s on a London stage. I had to dance around to see who’s available.
“It was important to have the entire original cast — Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville — it took eight months, but I did get them all. “The scale of a f ilm is different. For instance, one scene now is a banquet. A ball. The current scope called for a huge military presence, a parade, horses, extras and God knows what else. A march down the center of the road. Just to film that one scene took four days. “The crowds were very enthusiastic. Afterward so were we all. We all jolly well drank too much when it was f inished. “This f ilm was my dream. It’s a magic carpet ride. I’m no longer in my 20s. Coming out of the cupboard at this age with such success is thrilling.
“I couldn’t believe I was again actually back in ‘Downton Abbey.’ It’s very moving when the camera sweeps up and there is the castle.”
Sanford & none
SOUTH Carolina’s Mark
Sanford? Ex sitting governor turned a laying lying one? Cheated on his wife, lied to the public and his constituency, then pole vaulted to Argentina with a nonwife female? Itchy for a vanity project, we should now believe him? Even Donna
Rice wouldn’t trust this louse mouse for president. On the way to the White House, he’d flop into a cathouse. Now hear this . . .
OCT. 7, Alpine Country Club, chefs Daniel Boulud, David Burke, Geoffrey Zakarian and Herb Karlitz benefit City Harvest with a golf tournament . . . Floyd Mayweather Jr. and 50
Cent dining at Will Savarese’s Robert’s Steakhouse before hitting Scores in Atlantic City, NJ . . . ALREADY it’s muttered the Best Actor race will be twixt Tom
Hanks, as Mr. Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” and Joaquin Phoenix as “Joker.”
Don’t have a cow
JERSEY-BORN Martha Stewart christens the new Stew Leon
ard’s grocery in Paramus today. She owes him. He helped her start as a caterer. She may have a cow over the news that, big with bovines, she raised them years ago . . . NEW York mag’s issue, out Monday, has a piece about me. I haven’t read the thing. Better be good.
FROM immortal Max Nostradamus: “You’re not drinking alone if the dog is home.” Only in New York, kids, only in New York.