Broadway play and cast herself against type as Ava Gardner, re-creating that Hollywood performer’s late-in-life meetings with journalist Peter Evans.

Elizabeth McGovern must have felt the same way as a lovely, ambitious, aspiring newcomer eager to make her own mark on the ...

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Roanoke Valley SPCA. NEW YORK – For all of Elizabeth McGovern's acting career, someone else wrote her lines. Now it's her turn. The “Downton Abbey ...

The actress wrote and stars in a new play based on the never-quite-released memoir of Hollywood legend Ava Gardner.

Gardner’s steamy personal life is recalled in “Ava: The Secret Conversations,” a play adapted by its star, Elizabeth McGovern, from the book “The Secret Conversations” by Peter Evans and ...

Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) will reprise her role as movie star Ava Gardner in the play Ava: The Secret Conversations at New York City Center this summer. The play, written by McGovern ...

Here, McGovern shares the books and plays that helped her to tell Gardner’s story as it had never been told before. James ...

Who knew Cora Crawley, Duchess of Grantham, had such a potty mouth? Well, kind of. Right now, starring as Hollywood icon Ava ...

It’s not hard to see why Ms. McGovern was drawn to Gardner’s story. The playwright and leading lady’s dark-haired, ivory-skinned beauty recalls her subject somewhat, though Ms. McGovern, who is now in ...

Elizabeth McGovern poses during a photo call for the off-Broadway play "Ava: The Secret Conversations" in New York on June 30, 2025. Credit: AP/Evan Agostini ...

McGovern says Gardner was caught in the impossibility of women's expectations at the time — be sexy but not sleep around. She had many lovers but also felt the shame society imposed.

But Elizabeth McGovern, who stars as matriarch Cora in the long-running series and corresponding films, is taking on one of the biggest stars of Hollywood Golden Age, the famously tempestuous Ava ...