'Downton Abbey': Maggie Smith leaving rumor 'complete nonsense' says studio rep

News broke over the weekend that Maggie Smith, the formidable Dowager Countess on "Downton Abbey," has asked to be written out of the popular British drama after Season 3, according to a Daily Mail source.

That news, coupled with EP Rebecca Eaton recently confirming a major character's Season 3 death, had a legion of fans wailing and gnashing their teeth over the possible killing off of Lady Violet. How ghastly, as she would say.

But never fear!  A press representative for Carnival Films, the company that produces the show in the U.K., tells the New York Times that this rumor is "complete nonsense."

"We never comment on future story lines but it's not true that she's leaving," says the rep.

Well, OK. But until we hear that Smith has inked a contract to be on the show past Season 3, we will still be slightly nervous for the Dowager Countess. The show just would not be the same without her acid-tongued quips.