Jane Fonda hosts Rape Foundation annual brunch
The event: Jane Fonda hosted the Rape Foundation’s annual brunch on Sunday, celebrating the organization’s 40th anniversary and raising funds for the Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House of Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.
The scene: Emcee David Schwimmer called the event venue, the expansive Greenacres Estate in Beverly Hills, “this sanctuary of serenity and beauty and warmth and light,” and he thanked investor Ron Burkle for lending his home for the brunch each year for the last 20 years.
The crowd: Star power brightened the day with familiar faces, including Viola Davis of “How to Get Away With Murder,” Julius Tennon of “Small Soldiers,” Emmy Rossum of “Shameless,” Eric McCormack of “Perception,” Rosanna Arquette of “Ray Donovan,” Sam Waterston of “The Newsroom,” Tamara Taylor of “Bones,” Kathryn Hahn of “This Is Where I Leave You,” Amber Heard of “3 Days to Kill,” Corbin Bernsen of “The Young and the Restless” and Amanda Pays of “Leviathan.”
The program: Lily Tomlin surprised her “Nine to Five” co-star by showing up to introduce Fonda, a.k.a., her “go-to guru,” saying: “When it comes to introducing someone like Jane Fonda -- who’s extraordinarily special -- you have a tendency to just drag out all the adjectives. But in Jane’s case, you can just list the facts, put on your Ray-Bans and stand back amazed.“
Fonda’s remarks: The Academy Award-winning star said she learned in writing her memoirs that her mother had been sexually abused at age 8 or 9. Fonda was 12 when her mother, Frances Ford Seymour, committed suicide.
In years past, she’d declined invitations to this brunch, she said, as she already had so many causes dear to her. But then, she toured the Rape Treatment Center facilities with Gail Abarbanel, the organization’s president. “I had never before been in a place that had figured it out from beginning to end, from intake to healing,” she said.
And, she said, the visit hit home: “When I went to the Rape Treatment Center, all I could think about was Mother.”
The numbers: With 800 guests, tickets priced at $350 each and additional contributions, $750,000 was raised for the organization’s treatment, prevention and education programs, organizers said.
Ellen Olivier is the founder of Society News LA.
