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Georgia's Not Fonda
Jane
April 18, 1998
Many Americans still haven't forgiven Jane
Fonda for the infamous trek she made to Hanoi during the
Vietnam War, and now it seems that the former anti-war
activist has found an entire new generation to offend. The
fitness maven and billionaire's wife issued an apology on
Thursday for telling a United Nations group that parts of
Georgia, where she's based with her hubby, media mogul Ted
Turner, were like "some developing countries," with
children "starving to death" and people living in
"tar-paper shacks."
Needless to say, those remarks didn't go
over well in the Peach State, where an irritated Governor Zell
Miller fired off an angry letter to the Oscar-winning actress.
"Your remarks paint a grossly inaccurate and unfair
picture of the state of Georgia," he said, adding that
Fonda's comparison of Georgia to a third world country is
"simply ridiculous and reflects a prejudice I am shocked
to learn you hold."
Fonda quickly recanted the statements:
"I was wrong. I should not have said what I said,"
she admitted in a statement. "I apologize to Governor
Miller and the people of Georgia. My comments were inaccurate
and ill-advised."
Fonda made the remarks on Wednesday while
addressing a roundtable sponsored by the U.N. Population Fund.
She was testifying about her work with the Georgia Campaign
for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, which she founded in 1996
with a goal of reducing teen pregnancy in the state by
twenty-five percent by 2001. "It's what makes working in
Georgia very interesting, because we are, in some ways, like
some developing countries," Fonda said. "In the
northern part of Georgia, children are starving to death.
People live in tar-paper shacks with no indoor plumbing."
Miller countered by telling Fonda: "Maybe the view from
your penthouse apartment is not as clear as it needs to
be." Fonda and Turner, who last year donated $1 billion
to the United Nations, have a little pad atop the CNN Center
in Atlanta.
