Why It’s Totally Fine That American Actor John Lithgow Is Playing Winston Churchill On ‘The Crown’

Confession time: I already love The Crown. I know I’ve only caught two episodes, but so far it’s the fussy, opulent, well-acted, gorgeous British history drama of my dreams. I like Matt Smith’s louche attitude as Philip and I’m okay with Claire Foy playing the steely Elizabeth II like an opera heroine swooning for her love. It’s all great to me! However, there is one tiny tidbit I want to quibble with and it may surprise you. Whenever people talk about how great John Lithgow is playing Sir Winston Churchill, they have to add that it’s risky for an American actor to play the most British man of all time. Even Lithgow has admitted he was scared!

Here’s my problem: Sir Winston Churchill was far from the most British man of all time. In fact, he was only half-British. His mother was a girl from Cobble Hill Brooklyn.

Oh, no one told you about Lady Randolph Churchill? Jennie Jerome? The woman who invented the Manhattan cocktail? The woman who was so beautiful that a famous admirer compared her (lovingly) to a panther? The woman who counted the Prince of Wales and Otto von Bismarck as lovers? Your mom didn’t sit you down when you were 12 with a couple of dusty tomes to regale you about this wondrous creature?!?!?* Well let me tell you all about this heavenly creature who gave Great Britain its most celebrated Prime Minister.

Jeanette “Jennie” Jerome was born, yes, in Brooklyn in 1854. Her father, Leonard Jerome, was a famous speculator who hung out with Vanderbilts and Buffalo Bill Cody for fun. The rumor was that he suggested the name for his second daughter to slyly honor his mistress, the famous opera singer Jenny Lind. Even the story of her birth is scandalous and fun, right?

So Jennie grew up to be a rich and beautiful American girl who was down for a good time. When it was time to make a good match, she set off for Great Britain, where she would join the ranks of the legendary “Buccaneers.” This was a term used to describe a kind of new money girl from the Americas who married into legit nobility in Europe. The husband’s titles would grant her family legitimacy amongst the old guard and her money would save the clan from financial ruin. The British aristocracy was built to weather a feudal system that was becoming rapidly obsolete in the Industrial age. If this set up sounds at all like Robert and Cora’s marriage in Downton Abbey it’s because Jennie Jerome has been name-checked as a major inspiration for Cora’s character.

Jennie wound up marrying Lord Randolph Churchill. She reportedly conceived dear old Winston two months before the wedding day! If you’re thinking that British society would shun her for this, you’d be wrong. The British and European nobles loved Lady Randolph, as she was officially known. She also had affairs with pretty much everybody. In fact, the Prince of Wales’ own wife didn’t care that Jennie was sleeping with her husband — because they were best friends! It’s even thought that Winston Churchill’s younger brother John is actually his half brother by one of his mother’s many lovers.

You might think that it would be hard for Jennie to squeeze all this carousing and canoodling in when she was busy raising the future savior of Western Europe. The thing is she left raising Winston to the nannies. Young Churchill spent a good deal of his early childhood fixated on getting his mom’s attention — seriously, I’ve seen scans of a sad letter — and so there’s a weird case to be made that this propelled him to pursue greatness in his adulthood. In fact, Jennie “befriended” Winston after he became an adult and acted as his political advisor. It’s also possibly important to note that Jennie’s third and final husband was three years younger than Winston. You know, make of that what you will.

Lady Randolph Churchill died at the age of 67. Cause of death? High heels. I’m serious. She was trying on a new style of high-heeled shoes, tripped, broke her ankle, and died of an infection of gangrene. Both Anne Bancroft and Lee Remick played her onscreen in the ’70s, but no one’s really touched her since. It’s a real shame because there’s a sexy show to be made just about her social life.

What you should be taking away from all this is that Winston Churchill belongs as much to the United States and the intrepid spirit of New York as he does to the Brits. Okay, maybe he belongs a tad bit more to Mother England, but his biological mother was an ambitious, spirited, intrepid American through and through. So lay off John Lithgow already! It’s about time an actor who was born in New York had a stab at Churchill! In fact, it’s only right.

[Watch The Crown on Netflix]

*My mom really did this. She also used to take out a massive illustrated book about Henry VIII’s wives like it was a fairy tale storybook; I was about 7 years old then.

[Photos: Getty Images, Netflix]