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Jane Fonda has cancer

4 years ago

She's been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and has started chemo treatments. She's 84

Comments (51)

  • 4 years ago

    I wonder where she is getting treatment.

  • 4 years ago

    So sorry to hear that.

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  • 4 years ago

    I love her and am so sorry to hear this.

  • 4 years ago

    I hope she does well. She says 80% survival rate. I'm rooting for her.

  • 4 years ago

    Rusty Yes, but some here may be too young to know what she did, or just not be aware.

    God help her. I can't wish harm to her, or anyone with cancer.

  • 4 years ago

    Always had mixed feelings about Jane. I think she is a talented actress and I loved Grace and Frankie, and also On Golden Pond.

    I wish her well.


  • 4 years ago

    Wow, @Rusty! Let it go for crying out loud! How many years ago was that? The woman has CANCER! Can you just leave your horrible comments inside your head and wish her a speedy recovery? Or not say anything at all?? How low can you go?

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    It is disgusting to express glee or make disparaging remarks involving another human's misfortunes, no matter who's involved. There are people I wish would fade from the public eye but I wish none of them personal harm. Cancer is a terrible affliction no one should have to endure. I wish Fonda all possible chances for successful treatment and a return to good health.

    As far as her public persona, without regard to her specific political positions and without regard to my own, I think throughout her life she has shown a penchant for making poor choices. I hope the day comes when show business people realize that a public soapbox to stand on and preach from is not provided for achieving professional success, and that the public acts accordingly to not listen. If I dislike her for any reason, it would be for this alone, not the views and actions she's too often naively chosen and expressed.

    I hope good news about her health will soon be heard.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Kitchen table in my opinion is no place to discuss Jane Fonda's political views though I think I can say that as an American I support her right to have them even if I agreed or disagreed with what they were no matter what she did for a living.

    If you are going to have to get a cancer like Lymphoma it is certainly the best time so far in the history of treatments of such forms of the disease to get it. We now have very effective Biologic treatments that are very different from traditional Chemotherapy. Monoclonal Antibody treatments have been a game changer. I wish her well.

    edited

  • 4 years ago

    And maybe some here agree with her political stances.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    The company that owns this website and which as a result can unilaterally set boundaries and standards of use as it sees fit, decided some time ago that extremist political views are unwelcome. Whether it's extreme views of the type Fonda has long espoused, or the similarly out of the mainstream extreme views spoken by those on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

    The past years have shown there are regulars here from both opposite extremes. Such comments or back and forth contribs lead to threads being deleted.

    It's houzz's right, their bat and ball, they set the rules. Which person has which view is irrelevant.

    As I said above, with sincerity, it is hypocritical and offensive for someone to make a knife blade edged comment of vilification in a discussion of someone's potentially life-ending illness.

  • 4 years ago

    Let he who is entirely without sin cast the first stone...

  • 4 years ago

    Wow, people, just . . . . . . . WOW!

    My question was simply a question, nothing more, nothing less. Absolutely no political views, disparagement, vilification or anything else was intended. And I certainly do not wish any harm to her, or anyone else, for that matter. I am honestly quite surprised that some of y'all have reacted as you did.

    Sorry!

    Rusty

  • 4 years ago

    I feel bad that Jane has cancer. I feel bad for anybody that has cancer. I mean, it's cancer--the Big C--it 's pretty awful. However, I do understand why some folks have negative feelings regarding Jane's actions. It was pretty awful during that time. Strong feelings. I remember there was a bar in our town that had her face in the urinal they hated her so much. For those who are younger and don't remember, it was a very rough time for our nation. I personally LOVED Grace and Frankie and watched it faithfully!

  • 4 years ago

    Sorry, Rusty, not buying it.

  • 4 years ago

    I believe you, Rusty.

    tj

  • 4 years ago

    "My question was simply a question, nothing more, nothing less."

    Why did you call her Hanoi Jane? What was the purpose for that? That's not her name. That's a derogatory name people gave her who didn't approve of what she did in Vietnam, and called her a traitor.

    So please explain why you called her that name.

  • 4 years ago

    Because I wasn't sure that that was Jane Fonda. And in a moment of thoughtlessness, I asked the question here instead of Googling it. Is that so hard to figure out? ? Sheesh!

    I won't make that mistake again.

    Rusty

  • 4 years ago

    I too, wish her well in her current fight with cancer. She has fought cancer before and won so hoping this is the case as well.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    How many bloody Jane Fonda's are there? Seriously Rusty, you want us to believe it was an innocent question? You must really think we're all stupid. You sure are showing yourself right now. And it's not pretty.


    ETA: I'm more inclined to believe her than you, Rusty. Either way, It was MANY years ago. Let it go, isn't that what your parents taught you? Her explanation

  • 4 years ago

    That is too bad. I loved "Grace and Frankie", and noticed a physical change in

    her towards the end...not sure if it was that or not. And "9 to 5" is a classic!

    RIP Jane.

  • 4 years ago

    @Uptown Gal shes not dead 😉

  • 4 years ago

    Maybe wrong Jane Fonda. 😂

  • 4 years ago

    I'm sorry...I know that. Was thinking of the acting years I remembered. Sorry it

    ruffled your feathers. ;)

  • 4 years ago

    Deb, thanks for posting that info I’d forgotten the details of the issues and controvercies regarding her visit to Vietnam. My comment above about some supporting her politics did not refer to anything but her being against the war, as many eventually were. I think she has been sufficierly contrite and apologetic for many many years about it. She is an activist on many other issues now and I admire her for that.

  • 4 years ago

    >> Sorry it ruffled your feathers. ;)


    Hmm. I didn't see any indication that it ruffled her feathers. I think she was just letting you know (as I thought of doing) that RIP doesn't fit in this case because Jane is alive. I'm confused by the "ruffled feathers" comment. Hope you weren't just taking offense where none was (apparently intended).


    From what I've read, this is a treatable form of cancer. All cancer is bad, of course. But treatable is better than not.


    Rusty, I'll trust your explanation.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Happy belated birthday, Lars.🎂🎉

    I liked Jane Fonda in Cat Ballou. That’s about it, that I can think of.

    I wish her a speedy recovery.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Peter Fonda and I were born in February, but thanks!

    I loved Jane Fonda in Barbarella, and the group Duran Duran took their name from that movie. I also very much like Klute, Barefoot in the Park, Any Wednesday, Sunday in New York, Spirits of the Dead, etc.

  • 4 years ago

    Love Barefoot In The Park! Sunday In New York is from that same era. I enjoy so many 60s comedies 😃

  • 4 years ago

    Oopsy doodle, Lars. I Googled Peter Fonda and he died in August! My mistake. 🤭

  • 4 years ago

    "did not refer to anything but her being against the war, as many eventually were. I think she has been sufficierly contrite and apologetic for many many years about it."


    I think this recollection is misinformed. She appeared in a photo at an anti-aircraft gun in Hanoi, wearing a soldier's helmet. At the time, whether rightly or wrongly, those guns were being used to shoot down American pilots. It was an insensitive, inflammatory, and disrespectful act. It wasn't mere antiwar activity, it was much more akin to giving aid and comfort through support of an enemy.

    From what I've been able to find, her new attitude of regret over the scene came out 40 YEARS LATER! In 2011. Think of it as more likely to be a public statement for damage control, not newly found contrition.

    She's had 40 years of accepting public reaction to her silence over that photo, let what you see speak for itself. Suddenly, in 2011, she decided to change her story. She won't live long enough to tally a similar length of time of publicly announced contrition, as the number of years the photo was known without any apology or comment on her part.

    This is again far afield of a serious topic, my views of which I've expressed above. Not that it matters, I also did not support the war at the time but I did nothing to demoralize or contravene those who were trapped or misled into the military. I myself served in the reserves, I had a low draft lottery number and needed to do something. I joined only after a lot of investigation to find a position about which I was certain that what I was committing myself to wouldn't support the war effort (and it didn't) while accomplishing my real objective, keeping myself out of harm's way without requiring lying or flight from the US.

    She lived for 40 years with a rap for conduct that both Democrats and Republicans found repugnant. She was one of very few to act that way.


  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    "From what I've been able to find, her new attitude of regret over the scene came out 40 YEARS LATER! In 2011."

    Apparently she's expressed regret over that photo often over the years. Looking for references earlier than 2011, at first I see a 1988 interview with Barbara Walters and a 2000 article in the Sun Sentinal.

  • 4 years ago

    OK, that's good to know, perhaps my comments overstate the case. It was something she should never have done and if she wasn't smart enough to realize it at the time, all the public outrage afterwards should have triggered more clear thinking. And with more than her public image in mind.

  • 4 years ago

    Apology accepted.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I wish nothing poor to anybody ever.

  • 4 years ago

    Agreed^^^

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I find when it comes to celebrities, I have to separate their actual self from their on-screen persona.


  • 4 years ago

    My understanding of the timeline was off - she waited 16 or 17 years, not 40, but that's hardly better. Her conduct in North Vietnam became a propaganda tool of an unelected, totalitarian regime that was killing Americans. Yes, the government of South Vietnam wasn't any less totalitarian.

    During these 17 years during which she didn't apologize for what she had done, her career went fallow. The Baba Wawa interview was one she requested. Question - what was her motivation for asking for an interview? Her screen opportunities picked up afterwards. For those who don't remember, she was seen at the time as a foolish person who had been taken advantage of, a kind of public pariah. I remember well that a number of people I knew back then who were strongly and actively against the Vietnam War who, at the same time, thought Fonda had more than crossed a line of proper conduct and had shown very poor judgement with her actions and statements.

    Public figures whose notoriety comes from the arts need to recognize that their prominence is a privilege accorded their work, not a soapbox for political action. I can't understand how people can blindly or broadly venerate people like Fonda, a person born into extreme privilege who has a history of poor judgement and often inappropriate conduct.

  • 4 years ago

    If you were to put yourself into the place of the Vietnamese people who died in their thousands because we didnt like their possible choice of governance you might have more of a sense of where she was coming from. Did we have the right to kill them because we didn't like their choices? We cooked their children and poisoned their land. That has to count for something. That our own children were sent there to do those things is only part of the poison. So who should be held accountable? Fonda who supported their right of self determination or us who supported what? It disappoints me that she came to think she was wrong. I would not want one of mine to do what so many did thinking they were doing right when they did wrong. I knew young men who went and none of them were happy that they had been a part of Vietnam. I would not be saying that here as I tried to avoid commenting but so it goes.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    "Fonda who supported their right of self determination"

    When did that take place in Vietnam? If you haven't noticed, it hasn't happened yet.

    People who peacefully protested and engaged in domestic political action were the ones that changed public sentiment and Washington's political direction to end the fighting. Along with other brave people like Daniel Ellsberg who worked to shine a light on the lies coming from the government, from multiple places all the way up to the Oval Office. To me, commending Jane Fonda for those who were against the war would be like those who supported the war blindly commending people like JFK, LBJ, General Westmorland, Robert McNamara, or any of the rest of the unofficial conspiracy.

    As I said in an earlier comment, I personally did not support US conduct in Vietnam.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I remember well that a number of people I knew back then who were strongly and actively against the Vietnam War who, at the same time, thought Fonda had more than crossed a line of proper conduct and had shown very poor judgement with her actions and statements.

    Absolutely this. Being a useful idiot is not a good look. You can disagree with your government's policies in many ways, unlike those who live in any communist country, by the way. She crossed a bright line of decency.

  • 4 years ago

    The relationship between the US and Vietnam is excellent today.

    According to Pew Research:

    13 percent of Vietnamese have an un- favorable view of the US

    78 percent have a favorable view of the US

    This poll was conducted in 2015 and I am pretty sure the favorability ratings would have gone up in light of tensions with the PRC.

    Since 2018, Vietnam participates in the RIMPAC War Games with the US.


  • 4 years ago

    Rusty, I am sorry people piled on to you the way they did. It's ugly. You explained yourself kindly and I for one have no reason to disbelieve you. That said, I do not think there is anything wrong with people taking umbrage at Fonda's past behavior. I was a child during the conflict and had no opinion at the time. When I learned about it in school, I was against our actions. My opinion does not mean others are not entitled to a different one. I used to think that was a core tenets of liberalism. I am not so sure now.

    PS We have often spoken of maxims we learned from our family. One I learned from my grandmother comes to mind here: Never complain, never explain. You will never satisfy those who do not believe you.

  • 4 years ago

    This is a terrible cancer and she has my sympathy in her fight against it. The overall recovery rate is high but only because in childhood it is considered curable. In the elderly, the odds are very slim. She has my best wishes.

  • 4 years ago

    My neighbor just went through a year of treatments. She is 20 years younger but yes it's considered 'curable'. No one has mentioned how Jane went from the casting couch kitten to "social activist" to health nut then to seasoned actress. Seems the activist got everyone STUCK. She's reinvented herself a few times. I hope no one wishes her anything but a successful and painless as possible struggle but at the same time, HARD NO, many of us will never forget the military personnel she soo abashedly insulted. Say what you want about the politics of Vietnam but there is no excuse for the way Americans treated those that returned! Jane chose to be the poster child for that scar on America and earned all the vitriol she gets.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Many of us..... maybe most of us, have done some awful things in our lives. Perhaps when we were quite young? Or old enough to know better? How would you like it thrown in your face over and over again for the rest of your life with photos appearing over and over of your terrible behavior? And it being brought up and judged each and every time?

    Would you like this to happen to you in your old age when you are very ill?

  • 4 years ago

    While everyone has incidents in their lives that make them cringe, not everyone has the power of celebrity to amplify their messages. Fonda was no newcomer making rookie mistakes here. Fonda came from a Hollywood family. She knew exactly what she was doing and if you are fine with her trashing her own country on the world stage, then how do you feel about the pain and humiliation she visited on returning soldiers who were treated like criminals, in large part due to her encouragement?

    Jane Fonda was nothing like you and me. She lived a life where her family's celebrity gave her access to huge power. Her experience is one of red carpets and open doors from day one. With privilege comes responsability. Living with the consequences of your actions is a given. We all do that in our own way. Her life was lived inpublic for her benefit, the consequences live in public in public as a result. Without that public, without that audience, there would be no Jane Fonda.

    That said, I believe Fonda regrets her actions. I have come to like her very much in fact. I hope her illness is treatable and she recovers.

  • 4 years ago

    I agree with Zalco until her closing comment. In her eloquent way she describes the difference between the standards, expectations and consequences of the conduct of someone living in privilege in the public eye, versus the expectations and consequences of same for ordinary Joes and Josephines like us. Not comparable.

    Her indiscretions and actions were those of a thirty-something adult, not of an experimenting child or young person. Her expressed contrition rings hollow for me, not unlike the "apology" of Bill Clinton who expressed his regret about the consequences of his actions, not an apology for doing the actions themselves. Her bad judgement cost her big time, deservedly so. I have no doubt that's what she is sorry for. Let that remain.


    As for the comment "maybe most of us, have done some awful things in our lives.", I'm going to raise my hand and say, Nah, not really. Stupid things, sure. Ill-conceived or not well thought out things, sure. Awful things, I don't think so. And things as relatively impactful - not close.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I've been away for several days, so I haven't caught up with this thread until now. I think many of you don't realize that she wasn't hated back then because of a picture alone, it was because of the things she did. She visited the North Vietnamese military, sang a song for them and had that famous picture taken; but one of the worst things she did was to say that American soldiers were "war criminals" and that they should be tried, and even executed. It was reported at the time that she visited POW's who slipped her proof of their ID's and she gave them to the North Vietnamese, which caused the beatings and even deaths of some of the soldiers.

    I think most of were against the war at that time, but you don't turn your back on American soldiers; most of whom were drafted, trained and forced to fight a war they didn't want to fight. I had family members and friends who fought in that war, and I've heard their stories about the horrible things they had to face.

    Rusty's comment had nothing to do with politics. I guess you had to live through that time to understand the animosity toward Jane Fonda by nearly everyone, regardless of their political stance.

    I hope she can beat this disease. I don't wish anything bad for her, no matter what she did in the past.

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