Wakeham/Splash NewsBe prepared for an awards season "week-end" like never before.
After a presumable combination of scheduling conflicts and not giving a flying fig, Dame Maggie Smith—who famously hasn't collected any of her honors for Downtown Abbey at any U.S. awards show in person—may actually attend the 2016 Golden Globes next month.
"I am absolutely thrilled to be nominated for a Golden Globe, and to be in such terrifically talented company," the 80-year-old star said in a statement obtained by E! News today. "I look forward to seeing you all in L.A. in January. Thank you."
Squee!
However, did Smith also, in true Dowager Countess fashion, just somewhat slight Downton Abbey in the process ?
Because, though she was just nominated yesterday for her fifth Screen Actors Guild Award for Downton Abbey (Hugh Bonneville spoke on behalf of her and the entire nominated-once-again ensemble), that's not what she was nominated for today.
No, the much-lauded thesp is up for Best Actress, Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, for The Lady in the Van.
And that statement certainly makes it sound as though she plans on being at the Globes—so... Now she's willing to make the trip?
Of course, Smith would also be simultaneously showing support for Downton Abbey co-star Joanne Froggatt, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Limited Series or Movie, as the final season of the hit U.K. series unfolds and gracing her many American fans with her presence on their TVs, so we're all for whatever is driving her decision this time around!
Also, once she's across the pond for the Globes on Jan. 10, maybe she'll stick around for the 22nd Annual SAGs, which is right around the corner on Jan. 30...?
Yes, we know we're asking a lot.
But it's not as if Smith, who admitted to 60 Minutes in 2013 that she'd never actually seen Downton Abbey, has ever been much for awards shows throughout her storied career. Her reluctance to turn up in recent years isn't an age thing, or even a set-in-her-ways thing. She's just had stuff to do and she has always attended when it suited her.
Which hasn't been often, but Smith is no recluse, either!
She did make the Hollywood scene in 1979 when she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for California Suite, though she was not on hand to accept her Best Actress Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1970.
Nor did the star of stage and screens of all size attend the 1987 Golden Globes where she won Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for A Room With a View. However, the Lettice and Love star did accept her 1990 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in person—but of course, London to New York is a shorter flight.
And the list goes on for the overall two-time Oscar winner, three-time Golden Globe winner, three-time Emmy winner and four-time SAG Award winner (plus oodles of other nominations).
Smith just does what she wants.
All signs point to—as Billy Eichner and Seth Meyers deftly reminded us during the Emmys in 2014—that Smith does not care about awards, though perhaps just being so damn prolific and good at her job, combined with not being a local, makes it rather untenable to be jetting back and forth all the time just to smile in person during the presentation of that category. (Or categories, as the dame was up for a handful of awards at the SAGs in 2013, for Downton and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.)
Shoot, now that we really think about it, being Maggie Smith, so in demand all the time, must be exhausting!
"I was besieged by Americans and Downton Abbey," she told the U.K.'s Telegraph last year about the experience of shooting the film My Old Lady in Paris. "That's never happened to me before. It's television that does it. It was awful. I love wandering around on my own and I just couldn't."
Well, ix-nay on the siege mentality between now and January, eh, people? We don't want her to change her mind.