The Queens' Gambit - SOLUTION

The first observation is that there are six symmetrically-placed theme entries, each of which has a parenthetical number, and some of which have asterisks as well. Let's take a look:

• 18-Across: (Connery's "Entrapment" co-star (3)) = Catherine ZETA-JONES.
• 27-Across: (Booker Prize winner for "The Gathering" (5*)) = Anne ENRIGHT.
• 32-Across: (Creator of Bennet and Woodhouse (6*)) = Jane AUSTEN.
• 56-Across: (Poet known for translations of Sappho (not the meta answer) (1*)) = Anne CARSON. Not to be confused with Mr. Carson, the butler from Downton Abbey, which is indeed a name from 2010s TV.
• 61-Across: ("The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" star (4)) = Catherine DENEUVE.
• 76-Across: (Big name in Cambridge (2)) = Catherine "Kate" MIDDLETON. As in "Duchess of."

The answers are all just the last names, and none of these clues included any first names. This suggests that the first names may be important to the meta. And indeed they are: as hinted at by the title of the puzzle, "The Queens' Gambit" (note the possessive plural), they're the names of the six wives of Henry VIII, in chronological order:

• Catherine of Aragon
• Anne Boleyn
• Jane Seymour
• Anne of Cleves
• Catherine Howard
• Catherine Parr

The next observation is that each of the last names of these six queens (excluding "of") appears somewhere in the grid, possibly anagrammed:

• 42-Down: ARGON = ARAGON - A
• 37-Down: EBONY = BOLEYN - L (anagrammed)
• 81-Across: MOUSER = SEYMOUR - Y (anagrammed)
• 62-Down: ELVES = CLEVES - C (anagrammed)
• 4-Down: HOARD = HOWARD - W
• 10-Down: PAR = PARR - R

The three names that require anagramming correspond to the asterisks in the clues that point to those three queens.

Taking the deleted letters in the order indicated by the parenthetical numbers, we obtain CRAWLY. In keeping with the pattern above, this is also a word that's gotten by deleting a letter from an aristocratic surname: CRAWLEY, the noble family of the aforementioned Downton Abbey, our meta answer. 

Some remarks in response to some solvers' questions: There was no real way to deduce the added E other than just knowing the name Crawley. One solver asked whether it was connected to 30-Down (the conclusion of NARRATIVE), but that's just coincidental. Perhaps some people were primed for the answer by encountering Mr. Carson above (or by Googling Carson and coming across a list of Downton Abbey characters). In an earlier version, I had Anne Brontë in that spot, but I liked the idea of putting in Carson as a red herring that's actually a clue. However, for any Brontë diehards who may be disappointed reading this, I'll refer you to this puzzle (not a meta) from several months ago.