Order of the Companions of Honour all in a days work for Dame Maggie Smith
As if 2014 wasn’t already a busy year for Dame Maggie Smith, on Friday, October 17, the Dowager Countess was made a member of the Order of Companion of Honour in a ceremony at Windsor Castle. Ok, technically, it was actually Dame Maggie Smith that received this well-deserved honor, but it was fun to think about the concept of Queen Elizabeth II meeting the Downton Abbey matriarch even if it was just for a brief moment. Given for outstanding achievement in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry, or religion, the honor recognized Smith for her six decades in theater, cinema and television and puts her in some pretty prestigious company. The award is limited to 65 living people ‘of distinction’. Other members include physicist Stephen Hawking, actors Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench along with artist David Hockney.
Photo By Dominic Lipinski/AP
Doesn’t look like there will be much in the way of breathing room in the cards for Smith in 2015 as she joins her fellow Dame and CH member, Judi Dench, along with Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel, Tamsin Greig and Celia Imrie for a return trip to the Marigold Hotel in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is headed to theaters in March 2015. As the newly installed co-manager of the hotel, Muriel (Dame Maggie Smith) is the keeper of everyone’s secrets as they welcome a new guest to the hotel played by Richard Gere.
Not one to sit on her awards or relish the thought of having to deal with downtime or a weekend, for that matter, Smith is currently filming “The Lady in the Van” for the big screen, where she will reprise her 1999 stage role as a homeless eccentric who lived in a battered car for 15 years on the driveway of playwright Alan Bennett, played by Alex Jennings (Silk, The Queen).
