A hip rock ’n’ roll joint in London’s Shepherd’s Bush is not really the sort of place one expects to bump into a proper lady. But here she is, the oh-so-genteel Countess of Grantham, slumming it in jeans and... well, let’s just say she wouldn’t make it through the tradesman’s entrance at Downton Abbey.
And as for that scary old baggage the Dowager Countess Violet – brilliantly portrayed by Dame Maggie Smith – clapping eyes on her... Carson, the smelling salts!
Lady Cora rocks. Or rather Elizabeth McGovern, the actress who plays her, does. And I mean she properly rocks. Yup, Elizabeth, 50, is a guitar-strumming, foot-tapping, lyric-belting rock chick. Which is why she’s here in west London’s Bush Hall, a favourite haunt of the likes of the late Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, REM and The Killers, flashing more flesh than a 1920s flapper girl in a skimpy satin top.
Later this month she’ll be taking to the stage at the Isle of Wight Festival as lead singer in the band Sadie And The Hotheads, which includes brothers Steve and Simon Nelson. Music, you see, is her real passion. And the Earl of Grantham’s missus not only enchants with her breathy vocals (think Marianne Faithfull at her finest), but she also writes the songs.
‘Sadie is my alter ego,’ Elizabeth says. ‘She’s who I am. I am middle-aged. I’ve been in a long relationship, I’m watching my kids grow up and I’m looking at the world through that prism – the joys, the frustration, the boredom, the despair and the philosophies that get you through.’
Elizabeth has actually been married to Simon Curtis, the brilliant director of My Week With Marilyn, for 20 years, and has two daughters, 18-year-old Matilda and 14-year-old Grace.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2155918/Downton-Abbeys-Elizabeth-McGovern-REAL-passion--gigging-pubs-barnstorming-band.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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