The Kelly File

Megyn Kelly Escalates the Jane Fonda Feud She Definitely Cannot Win

The talk-show host launched into a three-minute monologue addressing the months-old controversy that hasn’t seemed to go away.

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Faced with the celebrity-feud equivalent of a land war in Asia, Megyn Kelly has gone to her battle station. On Monday’s episode of Megyn Kelly Today the host devoted three minutes to responding to Jane Fonda’s recent cracks at Kelly’s expense, itself a reference to an awkward moment from way back in September, when Kelly asked Fonda about her plastic surgery. During a Today show interview last week, Fonda addressed the months-old controversy and talked about it again over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival.

Seemingly unaware that Fonda has spent half a century becoming an expert in the art of the public feud, Kelly dove right in during Monday’s show, and even made time for a Hanoi Jane throwback.

“It’s time to address the ‘Poor Me’ routine,” Kelly began, saying she had previously chosen not to say anything in response to Fonda last week.

“First, some context: Fonda was on to promote a film about aging,” Kelly said. “For years, she has spoken openly about her joy in giving a cultural face to older women. Well, the truth is, most older women look nothing like Fonda, who is now 80. And if Fonda really wants to have an honest discussion about older women’s cultural face, then her plastic surgery is tough to ignore.”

After playing several clips of Fonda talking about her plastic surgery during media interviews over the years, Kelly said, “Look, I gave her the chance to empower other women, young and old, on a subject which she purports to know well, and she rejected it. That’s O.K., but I have no regrets about that question, nor am I in the market for a lesson from Jane Fonda on what is and is not appropriate.”

Then she took things way down memory lane: “After all, this is a woman whose name is synonymous with outrage. Look at her treatment of our military during the Vietnam War; many of our veterans still call her ‘Hanoi Jane,’” Kelly said, while recapping Fonda’s infamous history with Vietnam War activism.

“Even she had to apologize years later for that gun picture, but not for the rest of it,” Kelly said, referring to a photo of Fonda posing on an anti-aircraft gun. “By the way, she still said she is not proud of America. So, the moral indignation is a little much. She put her plastic surgery out there, she said she wanted to discuss the plight of older women in America, and honestly, she has no business lecturing anyone on what qualifies as offensive.”

Kelly’s address made its way across the Internet and, per writer Yashar Ali, to at least one former Fox News colleague, who wanted to know why Kelly, who seems to have such an issue with Fonda, invited her on her show in the first place.

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But Fonda doesn’t seem too bothered over this whole thing. Over the weekend at Sundance, Fonda told Variety that she would talk to Kelly again if she came to the table a little more prepared.

“It wasn’t like I was upset,” she said. “I was stunned. It was so inappropriate. It showed that she’s not that good an interviewer. But if she comes around and learns her stuff, sure.”

As was documented in Karina Longworth’s podcast, You Must Remember This, Fonda has spent the better part of her five-plus-decade career dealing with people who don’t approve of her, her activism, or how outspoken she is. And that hasn’t stopped her yet.

“If it didn’t make a difference for famous people to speak out, the right wing wouldn’t object. We are like repeaters,” she told Vanity Fair in a December interview.

“Repeaters are the towers that you see at the top of mountains that pick up signals from the valley and carry them over the mountains to a broader audience. And that’s what celebrities do, if we’re doing our job right. We’re picking up the voices of people who can’t be heard and broadcasting their story.”