Friday, April 17, 1998 | 11:09 a.m.
Jane, no! Don't say it! "What makes working in Georgia very interesting," Jane Fonda, former com-symp turned scourge of teen pregnancy, told a U.N. committee Wednesday, "(is) we're in some ways like some developing countries ..." Stop there, Jane! "... children are starving to death ..." Remember Hanoi! "... People live in tar-paper shacks with no indoor plumbing ..." Too late. Her Georgia-as-Third-World-country remarks have set off the predictable Jane reaction, particularly with Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, who's suddenly not too Fonda her. "Maybe the view from your penthouse apartment is not as clear as it needs to be," he wrote in a stern letter. Do backwards, barefoot residents who live in poverty-stricken villages and cling to severe, outmoded beliefs automatically add up to Third World status? Just because they're led by oddly named shamans (Congressman Newt? Governor Miller?), is that any excuse to belittle them? Yes, of course ... er, no, absolutely not! Miller told Fonda her comparison was "simply ridiculous and reflects a prejudice I am shocked to learn you hold." Fonda promptly apologized. "I should not have said what I said," Fonda said, saying what she should say after saying what she said. "My comments were inaccurate and ill-advised."
Miscellany
Such comments are perhaps accurate but still ill-advised: A new book on British sentimentality attacks Princess Diana as a muddled woman whose self-obsession damaged the monarchy. "Faking It: The Sentimentalization of Modern Society," published by a right-wing think tank, deplores England's emotional wishy-washiness. "The society's defining moment was Princess Diana's funeral," the mob grief of which marked "the elevation of feelings above reason, reality and restraint." Because this is Britain, the chief critic of the book is, of course, named Lord St. John of Fawsley. Diana's appeal, he says, "lay precisely in that she elevated feeling to the highest position ..." Well. We think we can walk away knowing we've achieved what we wanted with this installment of People in the News. We don't feel any shame whatsoever.
Compiled by Scott Dickensheets
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