Fonda: My 82-year-old bones hurt after a night in jail
One of the first things Hollywood star Jane Fonda did in jail was give up her red coat.
The wraparound, floorsweeping garment – colored the exact shade of a winterberry – earned fame of its own over the past month, becoming a trademark feature of Fonda’s weekly appearances on Capitol Hill to protest the United States’ lack of action on reducing climatealtering greenhouse gases.
Fonda, who organised the anticlimate change ‘‘Fire Drill Fridays’’ with advocacy group Code Pink, was arrested midprotest around noon on November 1 – marking the fourth time police apprehended her, but the first time they incarcerated her for civil disobedience.
Jail – where Fonda, 82, spent the night Friday local time – was apparently chilly.
‘‘There was a woman who was very cold and I loaned her my coat,’’ Fonda said in an interview shortly after she was released (without charges, according to her attorney Mark Goldstine). ‘‘But I did have to take it back: It was my mattress.’’
Fonda had checked with a guard, she said, who told her accepting one of the provided mattresses would be a ‘‘pretty bad’’ idea.
The guard insisted: ‘‘You would not want a mattress here,’’ Fonda said.
So the Academy Awardwinning actress splayed her coat across a metal cot and settled in as best she could.
Fonda has moved to Washington for the duration of the protests, which are slated to continue until early January. And Fonda plans to keep participating.
But she’d like to avoid another night on a mattress-less metal cot.
‘‘As one of my jailers said, ’There’s gotta be better ways to call attention to your cause – don’t come back,’’’ Fonda said. ‘‘I think she’s right ... my 82-year-old bones hurt.’’–