Fonda stands up Galloway

Probably about the only thing she’s done that I’ve ever liked

IT WAS a political marriage made in heaven for George Galloway MP, but Jane Fonda, the movie star, stood him up at the altar.

Fonda was persuaded by Eve Ensler, her friend and author of The Vagina Monologues, to join Galloway on the platform at two cities on his American book promotion tour, which was due to end last night at a peace rally in Washington.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow was thrilled by the news that such a “big star with a luminous reputation” was lending her name to his anti-Iraq war campaign, but Fonda cancelled at short notice, pleading a hip injury.

A message from the Hollywood actress was read out to disappointed crowds in Chicago, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin. “Dear friends,” it went, “I’m sorry I can’t be there. I have recently had hip surgery and my doctor has told me I cannot travel for a while.”

Yet Fonda, 67, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, was able to attend a fundraiser nearly 900 miles away in New York last week at the home of the chief executive of Air America, a left-wing radio station, in support of a documentary on the Vietnam war called Sir, No Sir.

It’s pretty bad when the world’s most notorious anti-war fellow gets stood up by one of the world’s most famous anti-war actresses …. hehehe …