Pity the Downton Abbey Staffer Whom Maggie Smith Whacked With a Cane

Maggie Smith, literal dame and figurative national treasure, would love it if you commoners didn’t get up in her personal space. Like, if you happen to become an assistant director of a future Downton Abbey film: Do not walk up to her, give her notes while standing half an inch away from her face, or even attempt some light touching. Because as Downton’s Elizabeth McGovern and Allen Leech amusingly revealed last week, Smith got fed up with an overly chummy staffer while they were shooting the film, and had to resort to using her Dowager Countess cane to banish his presence. “As she would see him coming, she would go, Here he fucking comes,� Leech said, reenacting her whacking technique. “That’s far enough, that’s far enough!�