Clooney Charms at Downton Abbey as Lord Hollywood

In a lark of an homage to It’s a Wonderful Life, George Clooney joined the aristocracy for Downton Abbey’s  contribution to ITV’s Text Santa telethon. Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) popped in as an angel to show Lord Grantham what life at Downton would be like without him.  Without Robert around, Cora has married Clooney’s Lord Hollywood and the normally mild-mannered Molesley has tattoos as the servants play strip poker downstairs. In a cute cross-over scene, Jeremy Piven’s Mr. Selfridge showed up to hawk lingerie to the ladies. One hopes the cast’s promises that this season’s Christmas Special is going to be more uplifting than gloomy are accurate, but in the meantime, this mini-sode looked like the most fun much of the cast has had in ages.