The Liz Smith Column | 04/12/2009 11:00 pm

Vanity Fair Ladies: Joni Evans, Gisele Bündchen, Jane Fonda and … Mary Elizabeth Smith

More from Our Gossip Girl: Apples and Oranges and earthquakes – Oh, my!

If you like naked women – and most everybody does – grab Vanity Fair’s May issue and see the incredible Gisele Bündchen (Mrs. Tom Brady) on the cover with a dress slipping to her pubes. The magazine calls her “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World” with a question mark. (What’s the question?)

Inside, fully clothed, you’ll find me sitting, front and center with some of the power mavens of the Four Seasons Grill. Yes, this is a major “Masters of the Universe” get-together photograph taken after dancing on the lip of the volcano was no longer so much fun. (The dancing had tamped down to a slow drag.)

In this sea of ties, dark suits and disappointed titans – Georgette Mosbacher, Nina Zagat, Dolly Lenz and yours truly stand out because we were wearing red. Joni Evans is a knockout in yellow. Wilma Jordan is good in aquamarine. I did like Pete Peterson’s scarlet tie, Edgar Bronfman’s insouciant open-at-the-throat white shirt and Zac Posen’s daffodil-colored sleeveless sweater. Lally Weymouth, Christine Quinn, Gael Greene, Peggy Siegal, Martha Stewart and Lauren Veronis all but disappear in black amid the sea of suits around them. But what the heck – we were the rare women there, a dozen of us.

Click here to see the Vanity Fair photograph.

——————————

Vanity Fair’s ever-engaging Proust Questionnaire asks Jane Fonda what she’d most like to change about herself. The star of Broadway’s “33 Variations” says, “My inability to have a long-term relationship.” The mag also asks if she has any regrets. “Regrets are a waste of time except as things to learn from.” Which living person does Jane most despise? “Cheney, Rumsfeld and Kissinger – just about equally – for their cynicism and disdain for life.”

About that desired long-term relationship? Jane had three marriages of approximately 10 to 17 years each. Isn’t that about par for marital success in the 20th and 21st centuries?

Jane Fonda © AP

12 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

What a great post/column!

Love VF, La Grenouille [the flowers!], Jane Fonda [great answers who she loathes, ditto]…Marie Brenner [will go look up her book this minute, love her and interested esp in title about brother] and that Joan Juliet Buck is redoing her loft. Pictures pls….that must be fab.

Liz, you have THE life! I’ll be sure to pick-up VF this month…often just read online.

By ~ ~~ on 04/13/2009 12:32 am

e-mail alert

I learned that "wear red" trick from a former employer, especially if you are going to be photographed in a sea of men, for example, the floors of Congress. It’s a great way for finding each other.

I love when a restaurant has beautiful blooms around, and Spring has some great ones to offer up.

I have read some of the articles in Vanity Fair. I thought Gisele came off as very pretty in her photographs and vapid in her comments. As for the more weighty articles, they need to wait…I’ve got to get through Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, since there is no more snow, here or in Turkey.

P.S. My friends called me up tonight and sang "Easter Parade" to me on the telephone. It was on television. I thought that was rather sweet.

By Washington Cube on 04/13/2009 2:14 am

e-mail alert

Liz - i’ve alwasy wondered what exactly "IS" society? really? your post has a "what’s left of society" line. what exactly does that mean? who ARE those people? and whose left lol? are they rockefellers or johnson and johnson people or Kennedy’s? is that society? what qualifies someone to be "society"?

As for Jane…. makes me sad. I read her book. she wants to be loved. she’s been as perfect as she possibly could to make that happen. brilliant and beautiful, succesful and talented and she marries… Ted (f—- around) Turner? and what’s his name the director. it’s always amazed me how women who want so badly to be loved and accepted pick men who can’t really love and accept ANYONE. Maybe she should go for the lighting guy next lol… skip the mogul.

By Chrome Toe on 04/13/2009 8:58 am

e-mail alert

"Society" consists of the (usually rich but, if not rich in money, then rich in royal or quasi-royal genes) people that other people enjoy reading about when they don’t want to read the serious news. "Society" excludes, however, anyone who wants to be written about. Thus, Paris Hilton is not "Society" and neither is Rush Limbaugh. By contrast, the Princess Hohenzolern von und zu Salzburgerknockerli is a member of "Society" and we love to read about the fantastic Easter hat that she wore as she walked, in six-inch heels, down Fifth Avenue, accompanied by her seven French bulldogs and an unidentified but extremely tanned and well-dressed man of half her age, trying not to be noticed.

By Sam Mirando on 04/13/2009 8:48 pm

e-mail alert

So….. Paris Hilton isn’t society even though she’s a Hilton? and Rush Limbaugh isn’t society even though he makes a bzillion dollars a year? because they WANT to be written about and noticed? so does that mean actors and actresses in general aren’t society? hmmm… does that mean Vanessa Redgrave isn’t society? even though i’ve never seen her seek out any tab reporting? or IS she society because she doesn’t! lol! would Bernie Madoff been considered socity before he got caught being a simple criminal? hmmm…. things that make you go hmmmm…

By Chrome Toe on 04/13/2009 10:26 pm

e-mail alert

Right, Paris is NOT "Society" because, by making a public spectacle of herself, she has courted too much publicity. Rush…? Money has nothing to do with "Society." Vanessa Redgrave is not "Society" because she is an actress; she is "Society" because she is part of an acting dynasty (rich in genes) but/and doesn’t make a public spectacle of herself. Bernie Madoff was not and did not seek to be part of "Society."

By Sam Mirando on 04/14/2009 7:18 am

e-mail alert

yep… i’m not ever going to really know who society is. But i’ll go out on a limb here and say that WHO society IS is probably largely subjective. Depending on the background and belief systems of whomever is making the judgement!

By Chrome Toe on 04/14/2009 9:34 am

e-mail alert

You’d recognize members of "Society" if you had to. But don’t worry if you think you’d flunk the test. There are more important things in life that deserve your attention :)

By Sam Mirando on 04/14/2009 11:18 am

e-mail alert

This evening the Turner Movie Channel aired an interview of Jane Fonda by Robert Osborne done about two years ago. I watched the first half of the interview and was absolutely amazed to see Jane Fonda holding back tears as she talked of her early work in films. She admits she was darn lucky but inasmuch as she was then a very shy girl, she experienced a torturous time with the Studios … one of whom recommended that she have her jaw broke and realigned in order to give her face a more angular appearance. Just the thing to make a shy actress feel confident. Jane also talked just a bit about her early marriage to Vadim …. said she simply grew into a different woman and needed to divorce him.

Anyway, an interesting interview. When they got to the part about her VietNam days, I turned the channel. Did not need to hear anymore about those activities.

By Bonnie Oliver on 04/14/2009 6:16 am

Bonnie - Jane Fonda’s autobiography was absolutely fascinating. and the part about her vietnam era activites was also fascinating. you’d have to read it for yourself as i have a horrible horrible memory for facts and can’t explain it to you. But you should read it. That picture of her that is so famous has a super interesting story behind it. she was very much set up for taht photo by the vietnamese. if you read what her intentions were and the history behind some of what she was doing over there it’s much different than it was portrayed in the mass media. Not at all what people thought. and i for one like to remind people that when it comes to vietnam… the protesters that thought we shouldn’t be there and thought we were killing our kids for no reason ended up being right. 100% right for that matter.

By Chrome Toe on 04/14/2009 9:38 am

e-mail alert

Chrome Toe- It cannot be denied from the video shot the day "that photograph" was taken that Jane Fonda was laughing with the North Vietnamese and rather gaily swinging around on the seat of the anti-artillery gun….the gun being used to kill American GIs. We cannot fight that war again but I remember vividly what the GIs thought of Jane Fonda at the time. Have some listened to her added explanation - probably. Does it make a difference? Not a bit.

Millions of Americans believe that the anti-war protest during that era was responsible for extending the war for years …. but that is a debate that will still be ongoing by future students and generations.

By Bonnie Oliver on 04/14/2009 1:21 pm