Dear Gossips,

Jane Fonda announced recently that she’d be living in Washington DC for a few months to protest climate change. She intends to get arrested every Friday for “Fire Drill Fridays”. When it first happened, I was wondering how she’d keep up the interest week after week. The first time would be intriguing and less so the second – by the fifth time, would anyone still care? Especially since she seemed to be wearing the same red coat on the “fire” theme. 

Well, obviously she had a plan. Jane Fonda is an activist…but she’s also an entertainer. She’s been in the spotlight practically her whole life, she knows how to attract attention. The second week she was arrested, she was joined by Sam Waterston, her Grace and Frankie co-star. This week it was Ted Danson. Jane and Ted’s wife Mary Steenburgen most recently worked together on Book Club. Is Jane Fonda bringing along a guest star for every “Fire Drill Friday”? Is this like how Taylor Swift had “surprise guests” at every stop on the 1989 tour, only with much higher stakes? 

If so… who’s next? Will it be a Book Club reunion featuring Mary, Candice Bergen, and Diane Keaton? Will Lily Tomlin show up? Imagine if there ends up being a Monster-in-Law reunion and Jennifer Lopez and Wanda Sykes are there?! This is probably a stretch, considering JLo is campaigning for Oscar right now and she probably doesn’t want any distractions – unless they’re good distractions. You know, an argument could be made that accepting Jane’s invitation to get arrested in service of the planet. Did you see the video that was played during the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards this weekend? Jane obviously couldn’t be there so she recorded her acceptance speech WHILE SHE WAS GETTING ARRESTED: 

Which means that “Fire Drill Fridays”, in case there was any doubt, is being produced – Jane’s out there mapping it out like a weekly television series, recording viral moments, recruiting guest stars, and trying to get as much coverage of it as possible. This is WORK! I was about to write that “the woman is 70 years old!” But… the WOMAN IS 80 YEARS OLD!

Yours in gossip,

Lainey