LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) – A new controversy over Oscar winner Jane Fonda’s Vietnam War activism caused the actress to come out swinging against home shopping TV network QVC yesterday, over what she described as its caving in to “extremist” pressure to cancel her appearance.
In a blog posting on showbusiness website TheWrap.com, Fonda wrote that she was scheduled to appear on QVC yesterday to introduce her book Prime Time about aging and life cycles.
But the network, Fonda wrote, reported receiving a flood of angry calls regarding her anti-war activism of the 1960s and 1970s, and it decided to cancel Fonda’s appearance.
Four decades ago, the American actress angered Vietnam War supporters who gave her the nickname “Hanoi Jane” for her 1972 visit to the capital of North Vietnam at the height of the conflict. At the time, she posed for photos showing her sitting atop a Viet Cong anti-aircraft gun, and she remains an object of derision by some US veterans and others.
Fonda, 73, has in the past expressed regret about those images, and in her post at The Wrap she took aim at QVC and her critics. “I am, to say the least, deeply disappointed that QVC caved to this kind of insane pressure by some well funded and organized political extremist groups,” Fonda wrote.
QVC acknowledged Fonda’s appearance was cancelled, but said it was because of a “programming change.”
“It’s not unusual to have a schedule change with our shows and guests with little or no notice,” QVC spokesman Paul Capelli said in a statement.
“I can’t speak to Ms Fonda’s comments, other than to confirm that a change in scheduling resulted in her not appearing today.”
In 2005, Fonda was spat upon at a book signing in Kansas City, Missouri, by a man who said he was angered by her Vietnam War-era actions.
“Bottom line, this has gone on far too long, this spreading of lies about me!” Fonda wrote at TheWrap.com. “… I love my country. I have never done anything to hurt my country or the men and women who have fought and continue to fight for us.”
