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Jane Fonda: She's Always Known How to Get Our Attention
Last Wednesday, when Jane Fonda sat in Stephen Colbert's lap, I stood up and cheered.
Currently doing the promotional thang for her not-so-good flick Georgia Rule, she gave the blustery fake cable news talk show host a whole new definition for blowhard.
Let's talk about your anti-war protests, he practically begged as she writhed and wiggled.
"We cannot elect men to office that are afraid of premature evacuation," she cooed, kissing him on the neck.
He looked like a frat boy trapped in a hotel room with the entire cheerleading squad and an open bar. Scared.
Jane Fonda knows how to make people pay attention - and for all the right reasons.
Unlike Salon magazine chief editor Joan Walsh, who has written paeans to Colbert, I did not find the almost five-minute interview - now all over the Internet - "cringe-inducing."
Cringe-inducing is watching beautiful privileged young women behaving badly, when they know that they are, omigawd, omigawd, role models for millions of young fans.
Consider Paris Hilton, now facing time in stir for drinking, driving and then driving with a suspended licence.
For years, she has been a useful idiot to marketers wanting to hook young women on big sunglasses and little dogs.
She has "designed" purses and jewellery. She has a perfume line bearing her name.
She obviously has influence, otherwise she wouldn't be making these deals.
Now compare Hilton to Fonda, who has confessed her own idiocy for posing atop an anti-aircraft gun during the U.S. war on Vietnam.
Both born with the proverbial silver spoons. Both with access to the elite. Both known for steaming up the screen: Hilton in a sex video and burger ad. Fonda as a double Oscar-winner.
But there the resemblance ends.
In fact, last week on CNN's Larry King Live, Fonda bitch-slapped Hilton.
"I'm glad she's being sentenced," she said. "I'm glad she is going to do the time. If she were black, if she were poor, she would have done it much sooner - maybe the first time that she had an offence."
To Fonda, there's such a thing as noblesse oblige, "especially if you're rich and spoiled and you are made into a celebrity. Somebody is going to give you your comeuppance, and hopefully these young people are smart enough to learn from it."
Oh, it didn't end there.
She also kicked the ass of Dina Lohan, leech-mom to Lindsay, to the end of the red carpet.
It was from the set of Georgia Rule that gossip kept leaking of Lohan's lack of professionalism and drug use.
According to the New York Post, Dina, inexplicably hired by Entertainment Tonight to cover the premiere, asked Fonda what it was like working with Lindsay.
Fonda berated her for Lindsay's condition and snapped: "If you screw it up now, you don't get another chance!"
This is not a woman who plays the game. What's more, the political activist and businesswoman has, from a young age, used her position to push for peace and women's rights.
Sure Fonda has had implants in and out, and bits moved up and around. She's done drugs. She's gone through the binging and puking, long before the tabloids started monitoring the state of the stars' skeletons. And she's made some bad marriages, after which she would admit to giving up a lot of power to her husbands.
But, as Colbert's red face showed, she is still a sexpot at 69. All that "feeling the burn" - her exercise routines are among the top-selling videos of all time - is still paying off.
So, just like Colbert parodies the right-wing talk show hosts who read their questions from the Karl Rove playbook, Fonda mocked the bimbos du jour who are all sex, no substance.
At the same time, she struck a blow for older women who have been marginalized by the celebrity culture.
What more could you ask for?
Now, if only she could straddle Fox News's Bill O'Reilly - and ride him right out of town.
Comments
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32 Comments so far
Show AllHEY,LOBO GRIS-BUSH IS NOT A CELEBRITY,LIKE MS.FONDA-HE IS AN ELECTED OFFICIAL TO WIT,PRESIDENT OF THE USA-HE TOOK AN OATH TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION,HE'S MORE LIKE ABE LINCOLN-A PERSON JANE'S DADDY PLAYED IN THE MOVIES.THE REASON BUSH IS NOT GETTING IMPEACHED AIN'T BECAUSE HE'S A RICH CELEBRITY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE DOUBLE STANDARD.ITS BECAUSE THE CORPORATE INTERESTS WHICH CONTROL "BOTH" POLITICAL PARTIES DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN.WATCH THOSE PESKY CATEGORY ERRORS.THERE ARE OTHER DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PUBLIC LIVES OF THE FONDAS AND THE BUSHES WHICH ARE BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THIS DIATRIBE.SUFFICE IT TO SAY THAT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WEALTH AND FAME ON THE ONE HAND,AND REAL NAKED POWER.
namvet67:
I can understand your anger, but its misplaced. The media has always done a good job of painting pictures in people's mind. She was a convenient scapegoat.
Whoe, such anger. It does no good, but I suppose some need to let it out and get it out. Ok, OUT with it, and then, lets get on with it. There are important tasks .... Really, truly.....
buffalo_ken
Quote:
"Now, if only she could straddle Fox News's Bill O'Reilly - and ride him right out of town."
Oh, don't be so hard on Bill -- Repugs like him couldn't handle a night with Jane Fonda. You know if Jane Fonda, even at her age, were to give Bill O'Reilly a piece, his brain (along with other parts of his sexually repressed body)would explode.
FONDA IS THE BEST......SHE JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER...
Fonda has always gotten a bum rap. She is a great patriot, and her intentions have always been to improve the lot of the residents of the United States.
i have not heard anything from jane fonda in years? why is that? is it because she is plugging a movie? i never quite knew what to think about her. but, 'bitch slapping' and 'kicking ass' are not a good thing. nothing to crow about. seating in colbert's lap and riding o'rielly out of town. YUCK!! what am i missing here. patriot? sure. human..yes..
comparing her with hilton...no way
If anyone wonders about Jane Fonda's commitment to peace and justice, look at Sir! No Sir! a great film about the GI resistance movement. Jane appeared and supported that movie. I know several of the fine individuals who appeared in that film who continue 35+ years to fight for peace and justice.
Jane Fonda is a media personality, a fine actress and utilizes that skill to get word out. You expect a person in our media-crazed society growing up as Hollywood royalty to be a shrinking wallflower? Get real!
I'm not nominating her for sainthood. But she has used her status for something other than her own career and self-agrandizement. Which elevates her above the vast majority of the celebrity crowd.
BTW-Do what you can today to end this f*cking war and administraation's reign of terror.
"she can wrap herself in American flag and sell it at the same time. That's not a patriot. That's a businessperson"
You just described in perfect detail the entire neo-con republican party ideology in one sentence.
I saw the Colbert segment in question. Jane was magnificent!
I'm a liberal democrat. I love freedom. That said, I choose not to see Fonda's movies and cannot stand to see her representing my side. What she did in Viet Nam was despicable. She has a right to say her piece, as we all do, but I don't have to support her. I wish she would change her mind and go to the Right. In many ways she is our Ann Coulter.
Just my opinion.
TC
"...Fonda, who has confessed her own idiocy for posing atop an anti-aircraft gun during the U.S. war on Vietnam."
Perhaps to her it is now idiocy, but to stop the bombing in Vietnam that killed millions of civilians it seems that an anti-aircraft gun was only one means of protecting people.
How soon we forget our crimes against humanity with easy absolution.
How easy it is for us to repeat these crimes against humanity.
"He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He's there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he's a good holy man
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You'll never, never, never reach the sky
He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them its all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there'll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You'll never, never, never reach the sky
He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he's still behind and he'll meditate
But it won't stop the bleeding or ease the hate
As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you're never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage in the words that he said
Sky pilot.....sky Pilot
How high can you fly
You'll never, never, never reach the sky
You're soldiers of God you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell
In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
"Thou shalt not kill"
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You never, never, never reach the sky"
Jane still rocks..I'd do the old girl
ba ba ba, ba ba barella!
dont ba ba ba, ba bomb Iran
Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan--they're cringe-inducing. Jane Fonda on Colbert's lap was the funniest thing I'd seen on American news (fake or pretending to be real) in a very long time. It was particularly funny because one of Colbert's shticks is to be totally in control--of everything. This was one time when Fonda was in control and I LOVED IT!
TC, there IS no equivalent to Coulter. *barf*
I've had mixed feelings about Jane Fonda. Her low point was posing on the anti-aircraft gun although I thought she was on target (no pun intended) on her opposition to the Vietnam war. After all Noam Chomsky, Phillip Berrigan, Howard Zinn and Joan Baez didn't pose next to anti-aircraft guns.
But for me another low point was her appearing at the Atlanta Braves games and doing the "Tomahawk Chop" which native peoples found very offensive. I'm sure Marlon Brando would have had a word to say for her back then when he was alive.
Still, all in all, I remember and value her most for her work on the "No Nukes" concert in fall of '79 when there was widespread opposition to the use of nuclear power. I was living in my native New Jersey near the shore at the time of the Three Mile Island accident. I had just seen the movie "The China Syndrome" about 2 days before the March 28th, 1979 accident.
Wouldn't you know it came 1 day after my 18th birthday. How's that for a senior class going away gift. I remember when the film came out the nuclear power lobby was saying, "never could happen," "nuclear power is the safest form of energy," "no-one has ever died from nuclear power" (If you ignore the "Green Run" release of 11,000 curies of iodine 131 on the Hanford Nuclear reservation back December 2nd, 1949) and "what makes that liberal "Hanoi Jane" such an expert on nuclear power," and on and on. As it turns out the film, which I enjoyed immensly, was dead on target about how TMI happened if you exclude the earth tremor. I remember the audience cheering when she does that impromptu one on one interview with the friend of the slain hero, beautifully played by Wilford Brimley, after the nuclear plant manager accuses Godell, played brilliantly by Jack Lemmon, of having a drinking problems which caused him to take over the nuclear plant. She skillfully dissects all the lies that the nuclear industry parroted over the years with that one scene.
Well that's my take.
Rick, Who lives 50 miles from the South Texas Nuclear Project which is know to be vulnerable to hurricanes.
Good for Jane. Good for Stephen, who showed himself to be the TV personality he is.
What a good Catholic boy he is!
There is hope for us, if Jane is willing to do what she did.
Jane, drop me a note! I love ya!
P.S. I am 66.
"What she did in Viet Nam was despicable." What exactly was that?
Wanting to stop the killing and bring peace in Vietnam seems to be a problem.
Bombing civilians is all right. Millions of dead Vietnamese is all right. This is American logic.
Americans support their troops as they commit war crimes. And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.
"I'm a liberal democrat. I love freedom. That said, I choose not to see Fonda's movies and cannot stand to see her representing my side"
Im a radical commie pinko left-wing fringe nut and STILL love my freedom AND i love Jane ! AND I want the war to STOP NOW and if it takes manipulating cable news to do it then she should. She can represent my side anytime she wants. You 'liberal' democrats should try and stand up for your beliefs once in a while. Maybe then we will all know you exist.
Jane Fonda wanted to stop the bombing of North Vietnam. She was then slammed for "not supporting our troops", and giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Sound familiar?
By the way Dr. Zimmerman Robert, perhaps THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER would be a more appropriate tune: "For without him all this killing can't go on".
Cheers!
Donovan - Universal Soldier Lyrics
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.
He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.
And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Labau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.
Amen!
I wonder how many of you would laud a famous actor or actress who today went to Iraq and posed with Iraqi insurgents making IED's to kill U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians?
Lobo Gris
Hero
Cruising at 20,000 feet
sitting securely in
that comfortable seat
you flip the lever and
the bombs are released
And far, far below
old and young
you'll never know
are blasted to charred
bits of meat
And you -- the Hero welcomed home
lauded for bravery
in the face of death
having never faced an enemy
or seen the terror you have sown
Dr. Zimmerman Robert -- thanx for bringing up The Universal Soldier, as sung by Donovan. Just a reminder to those who don't know that this great anti-war song was written and also recorded by Buffy St. Marie.
I would imagine that at least one reason ms.fonda was not "prosecuted for treason" was that she would not have gone down like a sack o'taters.fonda had the resources to force the GOV to actually prove its case.war? what war? who declared it,on what pretext? who betrayed whom,and for what reason?she would have challenged the language of authority on its own turf,and the hacks and flacks of that time simply could not risk that.fonda was and is not to be fooled with.
"...Fonda, who has confessed her own idiocy for posing atop an anti-aircraft gun during the U.S. war on Vietnam."
Dr. Zimmerman Robert, I have alreay copied that phrase when I run into your response. And I was shoked how little sympathy your comment generated on this "liberal democratic" site.
Yes, until public accept that IEDs in Iraq as justifiable as anti-aircraft guns in Vietnam, they are all assets to Empire.
I was shoked when Fonda apollogized for her stand in Vietnam the same way I was shoked when John Kerry did the same.
I am still shoked that McCain is presented as war hero rather than baby killer he is. But then the killing was done by conscripts, not by paid mercinaries as now. They are paid to be killed, its part of their job description.
Everybody killed 6000 miles off our shores in the foreign country is deserved to be killed. Period.
No way could Jane be compared to Coulter; Jane is very much a talented actress, political activist for her fellow man, but most of all, she is not equipped with a most obnoxiously obvious adam's apple as is Coulter. Neither is Jane Fonda rude and obviously, so in need of attention as is Coulter. Coulter needs a test to see if she has XY chromosomes, or if she has XX chromosomes. Sometimes it is difficult to tell. Unless she cleans up her own act and comes out of the closet, so we really know what she is, she really ought to keep her grossly busy mouth shut. She is a TOTAL embarassment to all Americans beaten only by Bill O'Reilly, who predictably calls his guests a name (usually bad) every 7 or 9 seconds. Maybe the two should marry each other and see who could call the worst names more often. Make for a good reality(HA!) tv show.
Paula
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK,JANE!
#
"DODGER DAVE May 16th, 2007 10:24 am
I would imagine that at least one reason ms.fonda was not "prosecuted for treason" was that she would not have gone down like a sack o'taters.fonda had the resources to force the GOV to actually prove its case.war? what war? who declared it,on what pretext? who betrayed whom,and for what reason?she would have challenged the language of authority on its own turf,and the hacks and flacks of that time simply could not risk that.fonda was and is not to be fooled with."
Yeah right. That's why no one will impeach Bush right? He has resources and is not to be fooled with.
People should wake up to the double standard that has existed in this country for a long time. From Fonda, to Bush, to Hilton, and any other well known wealthy celebrity the standards are different than for average Joe that commits the same offense.
Lobo Gris
Jane Fonda is a goddess. All of her detractors are jealous.
TC wrote:"I'm a liberal democrat. I love freedom. That said, I choose not to see Fonda's movies and cannot stand to see her representing my side. What she did in Viet Nam was despicable."
The late Phil Ochs saw TC coming -- some things never change: "Love me, I'm a liberal."
The US war in Vietnam was a war crime like Hitler's wars. Jane Fonda did what Thomas Mann & other Germans did. She should be honored for it.
cbc