JANE FONDA MORPHED INTO PAULINE KAEL SO SLOWLY, I HARDLY EVEN NOTICED: Jane Fonda of protest critics: “Those people don’t matter.”
Fonda is now a month into her four-month commitment to live in Washington, D.C. and protest every Friday on the steps of Capitol Hill over climate change. The protests are called Fire Drill Fridays and it’s an American version of 16 year old Greta Thunberg’s Friday protests. She’s an actress, you know, and she performs weekly. She brings along her Hollywood pals for support and added star power to garner attention.
Hanoi Jane, it turns out, has no respect for those of us who are calling her out for being just another rich and bored celebrity looking to create some buzz. It’s true she has a long history of protesting (and betraying her country along the way in her most famous protest in Vietnam) but a random four-month commitment to protesting climate change hardly screams “take me seriously”, does it? Also, she says we aren’t “good people” for doubting her motives.
As Pauline Kael, the New Yorker’s film critic was quoted after the 1972 election, “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.”
Related: Jane Fonda: ‘I’m Not Buying Anymore Clothes’ to Fight Climate Change.
But think of the carbon footprint of dry cleaning the 81 year old actress’s presumably massive existing wardrobe!