Just ahead of the fourth season of Downton Abbey, creator Julian Fellowes has dropped a small (and probably not unexpected) surprise on the show's fans: the next Downton series could be its last.

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes would have liked to give Matthew and Lady Mary Crawley a happier ending, but wasn't able to because Dan Stevens bailed so unceremoniously.

First, Downton Abbey premieres in the U.S. on Jan 6, then the show gets a fourth season, and now this?! Julian Fellowes, the Oscar and Emmy-winning creator/executive producer behind everyone's favorite upstairs/downstairs he said/she said rom-com was nabbed by NBC to write and produce The Gilded Age, a drama that NBC…

Downton Abbey is many things: Clever, dramatic, funny, tragic. But it is not diverse. The world of the Crawleys is insular and aside from a couple of Americans and the ill-fated Turkish diplomat Mr. Pamuk, there are no characters from other regions or races.

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, speaking recently at creative content summit in London, said that American actors are swell and everything, but they can't really do period dramas because, in relation to their European counterparts, they have all the historical perspective of first graders. Though America's…

It's being reported today that Maggie Smith is done with her reign of clever terror as the matriarch of Downton Abbey. While it's tempting to start weeping and saying an endless "Noooooooo…" We must do as the Dowager Countess herself would do and simply say a curt, "Well, isn't that a shame."

Strangely enough, when Carey Mulligan isn't posing for the goons at Vogue, she can look quite lovely. And has some interesting things to say! Wonderland and Interview buttonnhole the actress on Shia LaBoeuf, acting, and why awards season is "scary."