BOOK TOUR—THE EAST COAST LEG

I went east a few days early. Thank goodness cause jet lag was alive and well even 3 days later. My friends, the Bickfords, offered to let me stay in their beautiful East side apartment. Great bed, great sheets (waaaay high thread count, which counts when you’re desperate) and I still couldn’t sleep. I think it was the fault of Sutton Foster who so inspired me with her joyful, shining presence in “Anything Goes” that I developed a new regret…I never learned to tap dance. So I decided then and there I will take lessons as soon as this book tour is over. Problem was, I tossed and turned all night (3 whole nights!!) in bed as I imagined myself in a Broadway musical. Yep, it’s all Sutton’s fault.

With Robin Roberts

It began with Monday’s crack-of-dawn (if you’re from Calif and haven’t slept) Good Morning America. I was numb so not sure how it went. After GMA Gayle King interviewed me for her radio show on OWN TV. I love talking with her. We could have gone on forever and, who knows, maybe one day we will. Then more radio shows. Fun cause they were with people I knew from before like the wonderful Joan Hamburg. That night was Nightline. Didn’t see cause tossing and turning and tapping. But feedback has been super. I can’t wait to see how I look taking my 2nd tennis lesson (see, I’m learning a lot of new things…I write about why this is important in PRIME TIME…gotta walk the talk) and riding, fishing, tooling around my ranch with Tulea.

With Gayle

Tuesday was Regis and Kelly. In my last blog I said what I planned on wearing, that I would be all colorful and shiny. Well, boy did I get a lot of feed back on my shiny turquoise and brown jacket by Clara S. I got it at a Beverly Hills store called Harrara on Bedford….2 years ago. I did a radio show, for wowOwow radio on Sirius XM with (drumroll here) Leslie Stahl and Cynthia McFadden (who interviewed me for Nightline as well.)

With Leslie Stahl and Cynthia McFadden

Then lots more radio press, a couple of local TV shows, taped a full hour with Charlie Rose which was the most fun I’ve had on his show. Then I spoke and signed books at the 92nd St Y. My virgin book speech, as I titled it. Great crowd that included friends and family—Simone’s mother and father, Richard’s cousin Howie from Brooklyn, Rev Debra Haffner and her hubby Ralph, Cristina Biaggi, my friend who was thrown out of Vassar for dancing nude (except for wolf skins around the groin) beneath the full moon. There was a group of them there who called themselves Wolf Women. She came up to Woodstock last July to teach us how to do a full-moon Luna dance around a bonfire for the movie I made there, “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding”. (I play a hippy grandma who does such things).

With Charlie Rose

With Dr. Steve

Wednesday I again woke at the crack to do almost 3 hours of what is called the TV satellite tour. You sit there staring into a blank space and every 3-5 minutes you are beamed up into a new city. It may sound hard but let me tell you, back in the day, when I started out in movies, we were expected to actually TRAVEL to each of those cities. No kidding. I inaugurated a new orphanage in Denver, I was Queen of the Kansas City Police Gazette Parade, I danced at some mid West teen dance show…could it have been Dick Clark’s American Band Stand, complete with bobby socks and crinolines? That was way harder. It would take a month, at least.

set for satellite

That night I was on The Joy Behar Show—for the full hour. First time she ever did that!! I am honored. We talked about marriage and why would one do that again at my age and she seemed to agree and then, the next night, she went and got hitched. Was it something I said? But, I am very happy for her…and what a lucky guy he is. They have been together for about 29 years. (I gotta assume that’s who she married!) Got great feed back from all the shows especially Joy’s.

with Joy

After Joy I spoke and signed at Barnes and Noble at Union Square. That was fun too. Oh yes, I quickly taped an Extra segment while there. Then I was driven to the Newark airport while being interviewed by Nancy Haas for Newsweek and flew to Washington, D.C., slept…finally…and then did the Diane Rehm radio Show (NPR), one of my favorites.

With Diane Rehm

I was thrilled to be there with her and on my way out I ran into my friend, the awesome banker from Bangladesh, Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank with gives micro loans to the poorest of the poor—WOMEN. As a banker, he’d learned women are the best at repaying loans, even poor women.. We hugged and reminisced and then I ran to catch a plane and come home.

With Mohammed Yunus

Friday I did Jay Leno and then ……well, enough already. More on that later. I am getting tired all over again and I have to get ready to give a talk and sign books at Barnes and Noble at The Grove in L.A. You can find clips of the shows I taped in NYC on my Facebook page now, and I hope to get some more of what you missed uploaded here by the weeks end……

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29 Comments

  1. Oh, you’re incredibly busy. I hope you have some time to relax, too. I saw most of oyur interviews. They were brilliant.

    Is it right that your new movie Peace, Love & Misunderstanding will be released at the Toronto International Film Festival? Will you go there, too? I can’t wait for that movie. 🙂 I just feel something really good about it but I won’t tell. 🙂

    • Daniel, I will be at the Toronto Film Festival for the last film of mine

  2. the best photo is the “set for satellite”..that is prime time…did you travel on charter jet?

  3. I loved reading about your east coast leg. I especially look forward to the Gayle King (love her) and Charlie Rose interviews. So much depth to Jane Fonda. We need more than a short segment! Congrats on Prime Time and more than that, on a beautiful and well lived life.

  4. It has been a lot of fun watching and reading about your East Coast book tour through the television and facebook! It was like watching a sporting event where you were cheering for your team, the Jane Fonda team, and your team had a landslide victory every time! I really loved when you had the hour long interview with Joy. You have so much to share, and anything shorter is just not enough time! I imagine, though, that you are completely exausted, but I guess you have to look at all of the lives you have touched during this journey. Thank you for sharing!
    Oh, when will the Charlie Rose interview air? Did I miss it?

  5. Thanks a lot for signing me your book at The Grove.
    You’re a force of nature!! Even better in person.
    Hope you come more often to Bilbao 🙂

  6. reading your blog tired me out, LOL, you have been an extremely busy woman. I saw your interview with Joy, it was great. I love listening to your interviews because you have a great sense of humor and you are so real.

  7. I loved watching your interview tonight with Charlie Rose. As a woman in her late 40s, I am so interested in the aging process and the life that is ahead of me. Can’t wait to read your book!

  8. Dear Jane
    I am a breast tcancer survivor with a chemo cut and love your style. Is it hard to maintain and who cuts it?
    I just got your new book and look forward to it.

    • Susan, Matthew Shields at the Sally Hershberger salon in Los Angeles cuts and styles my hair. Thanks, xx

      • Jane–You are even more beautiful than my 40 year old friends. Please share with me what you had done to your face and with whom. Thank you.

        • Phyllis, the doctor is Dr Hutcherson 310 276 7012…in Beverly Hills

  9. Thank you so much for being who you are. There are so few public people I admire, learn from, and feel thier strength and compassion. My top 5 are you, Oprah, Pink, Bill Maher, and Madonna. Your memoires changed my life. Want to give you a big hug.

  10. Re: appearance on Charlie Rose

    Jane jane jane,

    what wonderful banter with charli. Your plugs for videos, books etc were well timed. i was glued to the set. yet you still miss the mark, as we all do. Do you ever think you will give credit to your Creator for your growth, love, life, ex’s and yes, even better O’s? Where is faith and God placed on your priority list? You’ll finally arrive and fit PERFECTLY in your skin once you get the hang of publicly proclaiming belief in God Almighty. Try it.

  11. Jane, the Charlie Rose interview was brilliant. It was clear he was really enjoying the experience too- you guys totally clicked and it was a blast to watch! You also looked gorgeous. Hope you catch up with your sleep soon. xo

  12. Hi Jane! I met you over 40 years ago, and when I see you now, I still see your truth; it hasn’t changed. You continue to be a force of nature! I was struck by what you said to Charlie Rose about your favorite place: top of the mountain, and surrounded by ‘wild’. I felt the same way at a tiny beach at Sydney Harbor, this past March. The place is civilized, and yet it seems to retain a ‘wildness’ about it. I found it thrilling and comforting simultaneously, as though I had found my true place on this planet, or in this sphere, at long last. You said many things at which I nodded in agreement. I wonder if it’s just maturity; I am 56, and entering my ‘third act’ as well. I love the journey, although it can be at times heartbreaking, scary (I’ve had full blown AIDS for 26 years now — I’m STILL here!!), and we don’t always make the smartest choices, do we? But I think we can only work with what we know; and listen to the inner self, the mysterious part of us that we ‘know’, yet don’t fully trust: there’s the key, yes?
    I’ll be brief: I’m glad I’m here, and I’m glad that I have been able to share this time on this plane with you; even though we don’t know one another. Best to you Jane; I’ve no doubt you’ll make the best of it. Will

  13. Jane Fonda
    You were wonderful on Charlie Rose tonight and thank you for clearing up the Vietnam issue as well as your comments about life , religion, exercise and family relationship. I am back in the gym working out finally after having to deal with esophageal cancer with the help of MD Anderson CC in Houston for the last 3 years. My hero in the gym is an 86 year old man who works hard every day. We called exercise the “fountain of youth” program for those of us who have been around awhile (I will soon be 75). Again thank you for your straight talk tonight and I watch on “Golden Pond” every opportunity I have.

  14. After watching your interview with Charlie Rose I left a comment on the ‘Truth about My Trip to Hanoi’ blog page, but then decided what the heck why not another on Ted Turner.

    I was very, very young when I started in business as was Turner. I also did business in Atlanta. In 1972, maybe 1973, when I was 28 or 29, I learned that Turner might be willing to sell Channel 17, the UHF channel he had purchased a couple years before, so I called him.

    I watched bull fights on that channel every Friday or Saturday (hosted by Sidney Franklin) and had a couple ideas for the channel. We spoke, and this is what I got: here was an honest man. He told me exactly what was happening with the channel, that it was sucking about $10,000 per month from his outdoor advertising business, and that he couldn’t keep that up. We talked for a while and I concluded that was too much for me too, so adios amigo.

    Much later, when I was a partner with Dick Kattel in a business venture, Dick (Richard L. Kattel) told me of a day when he, then CEO of the C&S Bank, had to turn Turner down for a $100,000 loan. Turner presented his numbers and Dick said words to the effect — what are you kidding?

    It was that bad.

    Of course, never say die. Turner bought another UHF channel and acquired the rights to televise the Atlanta Braves. He was still broke. But then came the day.

    That magic day was when he looked skyward and thought of the Scientific Atlanta satellite circling the globe sending signals down to us folks all over earth.

    Bang. He thought that if he could just transmit the signals from his TV stations to that satellite and it could re-transmit them back down to ‘all over the place’ he just might have something.

    He convinced Scientific Atlanta to let him try.

    Now that was pure genius. Absolute genius. The rest of the story, including the fight he had later with Scientific Atlanta who was thinking of dropping service to him for some fool reason, is history.

    The Atlanta Braves became America’s Team.

    So now that he had a world class broadcasting platform he didn’t just sit there patting himself on the back. He set about creating (with exactly the same derring-do, by the bootstraps by God) the world’s finest, still preeminent, news broadcaster of all time. CNN. And he attached to it other great things, like TNT and TCM for all of us who love movies. The deal he put together with MGM and the pain he endured to assemble one of the world’s great film libraries is legendary.

    All of it, every bit of it, was the work of a master.

    I sailed on Lake Lanier at the time he was racing there and remember his crew sometimes saying afterwards how tough he was, how determined to win. I just cruised around, he raced. Then he brought home the America’s Cup and achieved other great and singular sailing victories.

    He remains, to this day and in this age, a giant of a man.

    And you, Senora Fonda, in every way, shape and form, also remain one of the giants of our little age.

    Good for you both.

    It’s my honor to address you.

  15. Jane,
    I have never done anything like this before, but I’ve decided to take a risk and I am putting this out into the universe…I just finished watching your interview with Charlie Rose on Hulu and my watching COULD NOT have been a coincidence! I truly believe my higher power played a role in this experience. I have never seen the Charlie Rose Show before…I was just cruising Hulu looking for something interesting to watch and your interview popped up. I was completely mesmerized by what you had to say! I am a 55 year old woman who in the last year and a half have lost 120 lbs. I have been going through a whirlwind of life changes…What an exciting time my life journey has been! Losing the weight was the easy part compared to the mental and emotional changes one experiences, then add, what I now know thanks to you, my path of life review! Envision a massive, absolutely beautiful, wild and free wave and I’m surfing it…on a surf board covered with Ed Hardy original tattoos! I’m loving every minute of it! Believe me when I say it has not all been a bed of roses! But I am learning,understanding and forgiving myself and more importantly, LOVING my true self. How I wish I could talk to you woman to woman even for a few hours! I have so many questions for you! Thank you for being the beautiful diamond that you are! Forever sparkle! Much Love! Harley

  16. Jane — Just saw you speak in Berkeley — you have been and are one of my strong and beautiful women role models — you were wonderful tonight — funny and inspirational!!!! I am 63 and already trying to live my Third Act in a mindful, joyful way — I took cues from My Life So Far and look forward to reading my now signed copy of Prime Time.
    I had the pleasure of meeting you at a small house party in San Francisco in 1977 or 78 and we talked about the importance of the “girlfriend” relationships in your then recent movies Coming Home and Julia. That conversation is one of my favorite memories.
    Went to LA to take my son and daughter-in-law to see you in 33 Variations. They are both musicians so the play spoke to them in many ways.
    Keep on Creating a Positive Life for yourself and I hope to see that television series you proposed SOON! It would be great to have a show about a strong and joyful older woman.

  17. You can … the joan walsh interview.

  18. Jane,

    Looking good! I don’t know how you fit so much in, I am exhausted just reading about it.
    Are there any plans to visit the UK for promotion? You are sorely missed on our TV screens. I don’t think we’ve had you since you appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show around the time of “Monster In Law”.

    Love, Ryan. x

    P.S. I just saw some Farooz Zahedi pics of you. I don’t know how recent they are but I love your look!

  19. Your Charlie Rose interview was fabulous and motivated me to immediately download a Kindle version of the new book. I adored your earlier My Life So Far and know the new book with be an especially memorable one for me since I turn 66 in a few days. No doubt my husband will read it too since, like me, he thoroughly enjoyed your Rose interview. Your enthusiasm for life is infectious. In the Charlie Rose interview I was especially moved by your comments about intimacy and how you have finally found that state so essential to a truly meaningful relationship. I also loved the fact that you indicated you are comfortable with solitude and silence which I find essential and also something fearlessly embraced by individuals who have grown comfortable in their own skin. You have lived an incredibly full and quite extraordinary life and thank you for sharing your interesting experiences and your very wise learnings with us. As Charlie Rose noted, you are clearly a serious student and researcher. PS You were exceptional as Katherine Brandt in 33 Variations. Thanks for that too! I send good wishes for continued bliss, good health and happiness.

  20. I am so looking forward to your visit to Toronto. Your Advocacy work is phenomenal. Are you going to start a Chapter in Toronto?

  21. I have been reading your Blog for over a year and love it! I ordered and received your new book as soon as it came out. LOVE IT!!! This book is so helpful to those of us in the 3rd Act. Thank you for the research, interviews with others and your own thoughts in this book. This is a book that will be read for years to come. I am one of those Baby Boomers born in 1946, we are the top! I just retired from my profession although not from life and am enjoying some new adventures and learning new things. My 60’s are the best years of my life, so far!!! Thanks again for your new book AND the new video.

  22. Hi Jane
    Thank you for another beautiful book. I must admit I’m struggling to read it slowly and mindfully – I’m kinda hoping around between chapters. I have been so looking forward to reading this, that I feel like a child on Christmas morning, not sure which present to open first … and wanting to open them all quickly, so that I can go back to the beginning and appreciate each gift again more deeply once I know what’s under every bit of wrapping paper! So far, my favourites are Chapters 21 and 22 … but I still have more to open! (I’m not reading them in any particular order!) There is just one chapter I can’t find so far … where is the information on how to keep your skin and face looking so great. It may be disappointingly shallow on my behalf, but one of the things that you hear older people say most often, is, “I don’t know who that old person is in the mirror cos I don’t feel like that on the inside!”. You mention having work done because you felt like you looked tired, when you weren’t feeling tired. You look FANTASTIC. The work has not made you look 40 or even 50 for that matter and it hasn’t made you look like someone else. You’ve kept your beautiful little nose, you don’t have bags under or over your eyes, you don’t have jowls, you must have ways of dealing with the extra facial hair that appears after menopause etc. The point is, I want to continue to match what I look like on the outside with how I feel on the inside… like you appear to have! I was hoping to get the kind of detailed advice on this topic as you’ve provided on the other topics, like sex. I wonder why you left this part out?
    Love Sandy

  23. Ha! I just watched the Charlie Rose interview …I can see why everybody has enjoyed it so … AND I think I may have spoken too soon about you leaving topics out …. ooooo

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