I feel badly because I have not done my blog in what feels like eons. So much has been going on and, for most of it, I have been sick.
I flew back from Cannes to Atlanta. A very nice couple is renting my gorgeous loft and so I stayed in a hotel. That is so weird: being in a hotel in a city that was your home for almost 20 years. But when I walked out the front of the hotel to walk Tulea (who I was reunited with the moment I got off the plane 🙂 the first morning, I heard someone call, “Hi Jane!” and I looked up and there was a dear friend in a passing car. See, that’s one thing I love bout Atlanta: it is a big-ish city with all the culture and goings-on of a really big city, but you run into friends all the time. It’s manageable. You can wrap your heart and mind around it. I got a little home sick there for a few days. I also got real sick. Maybe it started with the pollen and turned into a major upper respiratory deal. Who knows. I was pretty tired and run down after Cannes and it is harder to get over jet lag at my age (wish I could remember that when I accept to fly places) so I was vulnerable. By the time I got back to L.A. I as feeling really rotten but I had these interviews and photo shoots and stuff to catch up on. I got onto antibiotics and got well and then I flew to San Francisco for a fundraiser for the First Annual Food Day in DC next Oct (more about that coming up!) and it was 50 degrees there and I got sick again. Then I had an amazing, high fashion photo shoot for Harpers Bazaar that will come out this fall, I think. OMG the clothes were spectacular. Especially a Stella McCartney dress, all black but with a wide, sheer panel up one side with large black polka dots on it. Wait till you see!
Speaking of McCartney, I can’t forget to tell you something truly special: Paul McCartney and his fiance, Nancy, came for dinner at Richard’s and we had the best time!!! The evening ended with Paul playing Richard’s Art Deco piano (from the Queen Mary Cruise ship in the 1930s). Richard fortunately had it tuned that very afternoon. It (and Paul) sounded terrific. In spite of being sick, I had a really great time and thoroughly enjoyed talking to Nancy.
The next day, I taped Oprah’s program, Master Class, for OWN which will air sometime this fall, I’m told. I so wanted it to be good. (You’ll tell me if it was good when the time comes!) The producer and director told me it was good. As you may (or may not) know, Master Class, is a program in which someone chosen by Oprah, who she feels has life lessons to pass on, talks for an hour, straight into the camera, in close-up. The conversation is interspersed with photos, film, home movies, things that illuminate what the person is saying. I watched a number of them to prepare myself. I was especially moved and illuminated by the ones done by Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. Needless to say, I felt honored that Oprah asked me. I did my best although I was not feeling well and then, straight from there, I went to the Beverly Hilton to receive the UCLA ICON Award. Jennifer Lopez presented it to me which really moved me as I know how busy that woman is. It meant the world to me that she took time to do that. At my table were (besides Richard) my BFF Paula Weinstein, her daughter, Hannah Rosenberg (my goddaughter), my brother Peter and his fiance, my step-mother, Shirlee Fonda, Jason Alexander (who was MC), George Segal and his wife (we did “Fun with Dick and Jane” together), a wonderful retrospective of my film clips was shown and a lot of money was raised for UCLA’s Longevity Center.
“Extra” video clip: Jane Fonda honored at UCLA’s Longevity Center event (click to play)
I was supposed to fly to New York today for Eve Ensler’s birthday party and a big V-Day event. Eve is one of my closest and fiercest friends and I am on the board of V-Day and the last thing I wanted to do was miss this. And the board meeting tomorrow. But I knew, and my doctor told me, I must not fly for awhile till I am all well. Well—that’s all for now. Sorry about my absence.
