Ms. McGovern, on the other hand, plays the stately Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey, " but in real life, we know she is a proper rock chick, with the guitar, band and leather pants to prove it.

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But at the Treasury, where they dine on the raw red meat of harsh financial reality, they were under no illusion that the only realistic option for the Rock was for it to be sold to a proper bank or financial investor.

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Once, he recalls, an environmental inspector claimed that AES had stored rock and soil it had removed from its mine without proper authorization.

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