The Preservation Society of Newport County is proud to host a special evening with Julian Fellowes on July 26 at The Breakers. Oscar and Emmy winner Fellowes is the brilliant writer, director, producer, novelist and actor who created “The Gilded Age” and “Downton Abbey.”
This event will feature dinner and conversation with Lord Fellowes in the opulent setting of the Great Hall of The Breakers. The evening will begin with cocktails, followed by a sit-down dinner. Lord Fellowes will converse with an interviewer for roughly 30 minutes and will take questions before dessert is served. To learn more or purchase tickets, visit www.NewportMansions.org.
Lord Fellowes has also been named the 2022 recipient of the Antiquarian Award – the highest honor presented by the Preservation Society of Newport County – in recognition of the collective impact of his work. This award will be presented during the Preservation Society’s Annual Meeting on June 9 in the Rosecliff ballroom. Lord Fellowes will not be in attendance but has recorded remarks to be aired during the ceremony.
He will be presented in-person with the Antiquarian Award at The Breakers during the event on July 26.
“Lord Fellowes has made a lasting impact, not only on the Preservation Society, but on the city of Newport and the state of Rhode Island with ‘The Gilded Age,’ his new series on HBO,” Preservation Society CEO and Executive Director Trudy Coxe said. “We are honored to have this wonderful historical drama filmed in a number of our house museums, contributing to the authenticity of a series that beautifully showcases Newport and its Gilded Age legacy while also delivering an immense economic boost to the region. And we look forward to hosting Lord Fellowes for this special evening on July 26!”
The Gilded Age was a period of immense economic change, of huge fortunes made and lost, and of fierce rivalry between old money and new. Nowhere is that rivalry more apparent than on East 61st Street, where Marian Brook and her thoroughly old money aunts, Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook, live opposite the stupendously rich George and Bertha Russell. The Russells are both fiercely ambitious, he financially, she socially, and they are determined to reach the highest echelons of New York. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, Marian’s friend and confidant Peggy Scott forges her own path in the world of the Black elite. In this glittering world on the brink of the modern age, will the established rules of society prevail, or will the game change entirely? Filming for Season 2 of “The Gilded Age” is currently underway at various locations in Newport, including several Preservation Society mansions.
“I am tremendously honored, even overwhelmed, to be given the Antiquarian Award,” Julian Fellowes said. “I knew about Newport. I’ve read about Newport. But I hadn’t been there, hadn’t experienced it, until we started to make the program. I find it an extraordinary place. I’ve already called it a village of palaces, but that is what it is, grand, even awe-inspiring, but at the same time, beguiling.”
Julian Fellowes has had an extensive and distinguished career in film, television, publishing and the dramatic arts. He received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2002 for “Gosford Park,” his first produced film, and he is the creator, sole writer and executive producer of the worldwide hit series “Downton Abbey,” which received 69 Emmy Award nominations, winning 15, over its six seasons. He also received a Golden Globe Award and special BAFTA Award for “Downton Abbey.” The “Downton Abbey” movie written and produced by Fellowes was released in 2019. Most recently, the feature film “Downton Abbey: A New Era” written and produced by Fellowes was released in Spring 2022.
His other work includes “Separate Lies” for which he received the National Board of Review Directorial Debut Award, “From Time to Time” which he wrote and directed which won Best Picture at the Chicago Children’s Film Festival and Best Picture at the Fiuggi Family Festival in Rome, “The Young Victoria,” “Vanity Fair,” his Emmy Award-winning “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” and the BAFTA nominated “The Prince and The Pauper;” and three novels – “Belgravia,” “Snobs,” and “Past Imperfect” – that were Sunday Times Best Sellers. He is responsible for the ‘book’ of the Broadway musicals, Mary Poppins and School of Rock – The Musical for which he received a Tony nomination. In January 2011, he was given a peerage and entered the House of Lords as the Lord Fellowes of West Stafford.
The Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island is a nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area’s historic architecture, landscapes, decorative arts and social history. Its 11 historic properties – seven of them National Historic Landmarks – span more than 250 years of American architectural and social development.
For more information, please visit NewportMansions.org.
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