Laurence Hughes: Downton Abbey: Season Three
Spoilers

post from TV on HuffingtonPost.com on 17 April 2012 03:40:47 PM. © TV on HuffingtonPost.com

Do you suffer from Downton Syndrome -- that empty feeling brought on by the lack of new episodes of "Downton Abbey?" Take heart -- the show's third season is in production now. Here's how I see key plot lines playing out in Season Three:

Lady Mary's insistence that Matthew Crawley propose on one knee at the end of Season Two has unforeseen consequences when the spinal injury he sustained in the Great War asserts itself and he becomes frozen in that position. This becomes a major impediment to their happiness, especially when Matthew insists on doing his Jolson impersonation at every opportunity. He becomes embittered when the village children take to calling him "Creepy" Crawley, but the addition of Shirley MacLaine to the cast holds out the possibility of another miracle cure for Matthew, this one involving some mumbo jumbo about crystals.

New evidence proves conclusively that Lord Grantham's valet, Mr. Bates, really did murder his first wife, and several other women too, but he escapes the hangman's noose and flees to America. There he marries a deeply unstable woman and opens a small hostelry called the Bates Motel, where his legacy of horror will fester and grow.

Sir Richard Carlisle, the self-made newspaper magnate, finds himself embroiled in a phone scandal: his reporters have been calling up Buckingham Palace and asking if they have Prince Albert in a can. Pilloried by rival newspapers, his position severely weakened, he is unable to produce the sensational headlines he promised exposing the Lady Mary-Mr. Pamuk affair. The best he can manage is a single panel in the Katzenjammer Kids comic strip.

Living in Dublin, Lord Grantham's son-in-law and former driver Branson joins the Irish Republican Army. Because of his experience as a chauffeur, his role is limited to driving and maintaining the IRA's extensive fleet of getaway cars. Worse, while on a job his compatriots expect him to get out and hold the car door open for them when they come running out to make their escape. Eventually the IRA expels him for honking the bulb horn too much while evading the authorities. Desperate to provide for his wife and child, he turns to dealing in black market hood ornaments, and is ultimately arrested by the Royal Irish Constabulary for stealing hubcaps.

Mr. Carson, the butler, experiments with the ouija board in the servants' quarters and is astonished to receive messages from Harry Houdini, an acquaintance from his days as a music hall performer. This otherworldly contact is particularly uncanny because at the time Carson receives the messages, Houdini isn't dead -- in fact, he is at the peak of good health and enjoying a sold-out European tour. Nevertheless, through the planchette the great Houdini shares the secret of the classic Milk Can Escape, which enables Carson to avert a tragedy at a local dairy farm later in the season.

In his probationary period as Lord Grantham's new valet, the shiftless footman Thomas continues his sneak-thief ways by systematically pilfering the silverware. Eventually it dawns on Lord Grantham that the family has been eating meals with their fingers for weeks because there isn't a single piece of cutlery to be found. The matter is cleared up when Isis, Lord Grantham's faithful Yellow Lab, leads her master to the guilty party. Always one to reward loyalty, Lord Grantham dismisses Thomas and makes Isis his new valet instead.

The family grows concerned when the Dowager Countess, Violet Crawley, complains of headaches and dizzy spells, but Dr. Clarkson attributes her symptoms to severe eyestrain brought on by seven decades of looking down her nose at everyone.

The wounded soldier from Season Two who claimed to be Patrick Crawley, the rightful heir to the Grantham estate, returns to throw the succession into doubt. The family believes that Patrick was lost when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, but the soldier insists that he is Patrick and that he survived the disaster. This time his claim is give more credence when he produces a chunk of ice to corroborate his story. He is ultimately exposed as a fraud -- he is, in fact, the coward who escaped the Titanic dressed as a woman. This comes to light when Lord Grantham chances upon the soldier voguing in the gown the Dowager Countess wore for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee -- something the real Patrick only did on Boxing Day.

The simmering hostility between Lady Grantham and Isobel Crawley finally erupts at an elegant St. Swithin's Day garden party, where a disagreement over a flower arrangement leads to cross words, then bitch-slapping, and finally a hair-pulling eye-scratching full-on cat fight in a manure pile.

On a visit to Falmouth Harbour, Lord Grantham accepts a dare to jump over the foredeck of the famous clipper ship Cutty Sark on water skis. This outrageous plot development will come to be known as "jumping the Sark."

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'Game of Thrones': Gwendoline Christie talks
landing part of Brienne

post from Matt Carter's feed on 17 April 2012 03:25:05 PM. © Matt Carter's feed

On Sunday night's new episode of "Game of Thrones," we were introduced to a character that is a favorite of many George R.R. Martin fans around the world: the female knight Brienne. It was a...

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landing-part-of-brienne

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Dwayne Johnson To Star In Reality TV Series 'The
Hero'

post from Starpulse Entertainment News - TV News on 17 April 2012 03:24:27 PM. © Starpulse Entertainment News - TV News

Wrestling star-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson is launching a new TV competition series. The Fast Five star and his producer pal Dany Garcia are teaming up with executives at Electus Entertainment t...

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'Real Housewives of Atlanta' reunion surges
versus season 4 finale

post from Matt Carter's feed on 17 April 2012 03:16:14 PM. © Matt Carter's feed

In what may be a sign that people love the "Real Housewives of Atlanta" reunion dynamic more than the actual show at the moment, the show ended up posting some rather dramatic gains with the first part of...

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versus-season-4-finale

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NBC's 'The Voice' host Carson Daly talks Jesse
Campbell elimination

post from Matt Carter's feed on 17 April 2012 03:07:40 PM. © Matt Carter's feed

There was certainly a stunning moment on "The Voice" Monday night courtesy of Jesse Campbell's sudden elimination from the competition, and even as a host Carson Daly admits that it shook him up to his core...

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ABC's 'The Bachelor' Expected To Face Racial
Discrimination Suit

post from TV on HuffingtonPost.com on 17 April 2012 03:05:02 PM. © TV on HuffingtonPost.com

ABC’s reality dating game show series, which includes “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” is expected to face a class-action lawsuit this week for racial discrimination due to it's failure of featuring minority contestants on the show.

According to TMZ, attorneys for Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson will file the complaint in federal court on Wednesday morning against ABC production companies Warner Horizon Television, Next Entertainment, NZK Productions and “Bachelor” executive producer Mike Fleiss.

Sources tell the site that both plaintiffs attended a Nashville audition at a local hotel claiming that a producer questioned their attendance before leaving the two out of the normal audition process. Both believe their race led to the producer’s decision to not contact them following the audition.

The show’s lack of diversity over the course of 23 seasons has raised a few questions in recent years as to why there has never been a non-white bachelor. Last year show creator, Fleiss told Entertainment Weekly that he and his production team are always looking to cast for ethnic diversity, “it’s just that for whatever reason, they don’t come forward. I wish they would.”

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Khloe Kardashian still not pregnant with Lamar
Odom's child

post from Matt Carter's feed on 17 April 2012 03:00:15 PM. © Matt Carter's feed

For what sees to be the hundredth time in recent memory, a new tabloid report has started to spiral out of the control suggesting that Khloe Kardashian is pregnant with her first child.How did this rumor really start up...

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'White Collar': 'House' Actor Lands Guest
Starring Gig (Exclusive)

post from Hollywood Reporter - Live Feed on 17 April 2012 02:58:42 PM. © Hollywood Reporter - Live Feed

Philiana Ng
Actress Laurie Williams, who recently appeared on "Blue Bloods," joins Michael Weston for an upcoming season 4 episode.

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Why Kathy Griffin's New Talk Show Won't Feature
Celebrity Guests

Kathy Griffin's new talk show "Kathy" premieres Thursday night on Bravo, but it won't be featuring any celebrity guests. As the raunchy comedienne detailed on "The Wendy Williams Show" (weekdays on Fox) there's a reason for that -- it will be far easier to rip on those celebrities in absentia.

"I know this is sort of going out there, but no celebrities. They're not invited, and here's why. I don't feel that I can do the lord's work -- making fun of Ryan Seacrest -- I don't feel that I can make fun of thees celebrities if they're next to me, or if their friends are next to me," Griffin explained.

Griffin's show will feature a panel of commentators, but they'll be regular people. "My 91-year-old alcholic mom will be on there ... I'm actually looking for real life people who can just speak freely and not have to worry about being fired for it ... I'm sure you know people in your lives that maybe wouldn't go on TV -- I'll force them -- but they just let it rip and say all the heinous negative things we're thinking."

In a March interview with HuffPost TV, Griffin gave more details on what the show will look like:

It's going to be, what's called in the industry, a shitstorm. I just did a promotional photo shoot for Bravo, and I'm playing a little bit of a smoke-and-mirrors game with them, where I don't actually want them to know what the show is because I'm trying not to get canceled before my premiere. But they did a photoshoot with me with police "caution" tape around my mouth, so it's almost as if they're anticipating ... they know what they're in for, as will the rest of America, Canada, parts of Mexico City, the UK and Finland.

"Kathy" premieres Thursday, April 19 at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.

TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.

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