Dear Gossips,
Jane Fonda was arrested again on Friday, the fourth week in a row. As we’ve seen in previous weeks, she was joined by guest stars – this time Catherine Keener and Rosanna Arquette. In a new interview with Jessica Goldstein for Vulture, Jane confirms that she has more guest stars lined up for upcoming “Fire Drill Fridays”: Taylor Schilling, Diane Lane, Mark Ruffalo, Shailene Woodley, Kyra Sedgwick, and Sharon Stone and Pamela Anderson want to come too.
As we know now, Jane has moved to Washington, DC temporarily to protest. She wanted to do it for a year but production on Grace and Frankie resumes in January and she actually asked Netflix boss Ted Sarandos if, you know, the show could wait a year while she kept up with her civil disobedience but her request was declined. Still, being away for four months means she’s not spending time with her family, in particular her grandson. And while she’s obviously as strong as ever, you can’t ignore the fact that she’s 81 years old. Spending a night in jail, which is what happened this weekend, isn’t easy at any age, let alone her age. As noted in the NY Times, staying balanced while being handcuffed is a concern for her, in addition to having to climb up steps to get into the bus that takes detainees to get booked, and how hard the floors are on her body – she uses her coat as a mattress in jail.
I appreciate the details in Jessica’s Vulture piece about what it’s like to get arrested, how Jane prepares every week for her arrest. Like how you have to be well-fed beforehand because you could go hours before eating. That you need to have photo ID on you as well as well $50 exactly to get yourself out of jail afterwards. Apparently there’s meditation and martial arts and chanting beforehand, to ready the mind and body for what’s to come. And while Jane says she realises that she has it easy when she’s arrested, because she’s white and famous, there are worse examples of celebrity privilege. Until next week’s episode of “Fire Drill Fridays” then….
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
