Michelle Dockery on the Cover of 'Vanity Fair' May 2012 "Ladies of TV" Issue

Lady Mary is looking mighty sexy on the cover of the May 2012 issue of Vanity Fair. Somehow when I look at this Pamuk comes to mind lol...

Michelle Dockery , Julianna Margulies, Claire Danes, and Sofía Vergara appear on the cover of the May 2012 Vanity Fair for a special "Ladies of TV issue."

Ladies of the TV Issue: Sofía Vergara, Claire Danes, Julianna Margulies, and Michelle Dockery

As our culture critic James Wolcott will tell you, it is now television shows rather than films that dominate the cultural conversation and “enrich the iconography and collective lore of pop culture.” Four examples of television’s lure? We can think of none so enticing as the lead actresses of Modern Family, Homeland, The Good Wife, and Downton Abbey, shown in a photograph by Norman Jean Roy on the cover of our TV issue—the inside pages of which also feature cast members from The Big Bang Theory, Revenge, Curb Your Enthusiasm, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Shameless, and more. (Plus: an oral history of Friends!)

Click here to watch watch a video of the photoshoot . Michelle makes a very cute mention of the first time she knew 'Downton Abbey' was a "hit."

 Here's an excerpt from VanityFair.com

Under Covers, On the Cover:

Norman Jean Roy photographed the four stars on our cover one New York winter’s afternoon, at the Drive-In Studios, in Chelsea. (He then shot the accompanying portfolio—which begins on page 152—in Hollywood, at Milk Studios.) Among them, this quartet represents four of the best shows currently, or ever, on the air (to use an increasingly anachronistic formulation in the age of cable and streaming but one we still find charming).
Michelle Dockery had but a handful of British TV-movie appearances to her credit before she became an international star last year with Downton Abbey, on which she plays the lovably imperious Lady Mary Crawley, whose withering eyebrows are second on the show only to Dame Maggie Smith’s. Dockery is also an accomplished jazz singer. She showed a hint of this ability singing the 1916 hit “If You Were the Only Girl (in the World)” on one episode, but you can get a better sense of her playful way with a tune on YouTube, where she sings “Sans Souci” at the 2011 London Jazz Festival. She cites Peggy Lee as an influence, and we believe her.

Read more here. I love that they mentioned Michelle's singing ability! Click here to hear her singing "Sans Souci" at the London Jazz Festval.