Megyn Kelly asked Jane Fonda about plastic surgery, Fonda shut it down

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Kaiser usually covers the Megyn Kelly stories but I think I get the gist of this woman’s personality. She’s neither a good interviewer nor a great personality from what I can gather but she’s perky enough and I assume people buy into her act. This week she launched her own talkshow as part of The Today Show’s 9am lineup, called Megyn Kelly Today. In her first week Kelly made really asinine gay “jokes” while interviewing the Will and Grace cast, joking that the show turned a fan gay. Debra Messing later responded that she had no idea GOP Barbie (Kaiser’s nickname) would be interviewing her, writing on InstagramHonestly I didn’t now it was MK until that morning. The itinerary just said ‘Today Show’ appearance. Regret going on. Dismayed by her comments.

Now Kelly stepped in it again by asking Jane Fonda about her plastic surgery during a joint interview with Fonda’s costar, Robert Redford. The two are starring in a movie called Our Souls at Night on Netflix. It’s about two senior neighbors finding love and it’s by Indian director Ritesh Batra. (Sidenote I saw his film The Lunchbox, I rented it on Amazon, and loved it so much. I’ll definitely watch this one.)

In the interview, which you can watch below, Kelly asked when Robert Redford became a heartthrob, which was dumb and awkward. Then at about 1:30 she tells Jane “You’ve been an example to everyone in how to age beautifully and with strength and apologetically. You admit you’ve had work done, to your credit, but you look amazing.” That’s when Jane gave her this look like “WTF did you just say to me?”

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I’ve put the rest of that exchange below:

Kelly continued “Why did you say you felt not proud to talk about that?”

Jane asked incredulously “We really want to talk about that now?”

“Well one of the things people think about when they look at you is how amazing you look.”

“Thanks, good attitude, good posture, I take good care of myself. Let me tell you why I love this movie that we did, ‘Our Souls at Night,’ rather than plastic surgery. You kind of have a choice in life when you get to be close to 80 or even before then what you want to do with your life and my character… she knows there’s a lot more time behind her rather than in front and she doesn’t want to go down lonely and scared.”

[From video on Today.com]

Fonda then recovered like a boss and spoke passionately about her character, because she’s a professional with decades of experience while Kelly is a hack. You don’t ask celebrities about their plastic surgery in an interview with a costar in front of a live audience, that’s a magazine interview question. That’s something you ask after you’ve had dinner, drinks and/or an outing with a celebrity and have gained their trust. She also asked Redford and Fonda that if they could go back to any age in their lives what age would that be. Give me a break. Who is writing these questions? Kelly is unsuited for this job. Being a blonde talking head on Fox didn’t prepare her for much other than making their rhetoric palatable to idiots who would eat it up regardless.

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Photos are screenshots from Today video and also credit: Getty

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123 Responses to “Megyn Kelly asked Jane Fonda about plastic surgery, Fonda shut it down”

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  1. Sara says:

    Off topic but any Grace and Frankie fans around?

  2. Darla says:

    I watched the clip about 10 times yesterday, and the look on Fonda’s face never gets old. It’s so awesome. I laughed. If it were someone other than this dope Kelly, I would actually have been embarrassed for them. But in her case, it’s hilarious.

    • Giddy says:

      I also watched it several times. That “I can turn you to stone” look is fabulous. Kelly is a horrible interviewer and host. She’s so stupid that even after that look she didn’t drop it. Her show will be lucky to book D list celebrities after this week.

  3. TheOtherViv says:

    ok, this is my favourite Jane Fonda WTF face EVER now.
    Did she forget to ask Rob about any plastic surgery?

    • Renee2 says:

      Thank you!!! He’s certainly had some work done, and I am sorry, but he needs to get a better wig.

      • Suzanne says:

        Is he wearing a wig? I wondered about that. He always had a fabulous head of hair but when I noticed how natural the color was…with gray coming in on the sideburns…it suddenly hit me that it could be a wig.

    • Chaine says:

      Both Jane and Robert look bizarre. I do not feel sad for them about it, because they have such name recognition that it is not hurting them. But I do feel sad for audiences and for actors that are aging gracefully with their normal faces but not getting parts. As I get older, I find I prefer to see actors that look like a normal aging person. I am not sure I want to see a movie about characters played by Jane and Robert falling in love, because neither of their faces looks anything like a normal senior citizen’s, all stretched and tweaked. It’s distracting. I can’t even stand it when I see an actress in a movie with lip plumping. I think it was Sandra Bullock in Lake House, the whole movie, all I could see was her unnatural swollen upper lip.

    • Ronaldinhio says:

      This this this
      He looks like a woman now, why not ask him if he had surgery to stay relevant etc

    • AnneC says:

      US Actors need to look across the pond to Britain and how gracefully they age and stop with the plastic surgery, Botox and fillers. It’s scary. Judi Dench for the win.

      • holly says:

        Watching the film Victoria and Abdul, with its close ups on Dame Judi’s wonderful aged face was so beautiful. She looks luminous, wrinkled skin and all. What a treasure!

      • Snowflake says:

        Yes! I had an ex that was from England. He watching some show one day. I thought it was an old show because the actors looked like ordinary people! But no, it was a current show popular over there. I don’t remember the name. Quite a difference from US!

  4. Lightpurple says:

    Given that 3/4s of Megyn’s face is immobile, she should know better.

    And Jane has good genes. Her dad looked good when he was old

  5. PIa says:

    Kyle McLaughlin gets work done, as many other actors I believe. He has even shared this publicly, but no one asks him about that in his interviews on talk shows like this.

  6. the_blonde_one says:

    So, there’s two people sitting there and she only asks the woman about plastic surgery? Not that she needs to be asking anyone but why not ask Redford too?

    • lucy2 says:

      I saw articles about this story yesterday and didn’t realize Robert was sitting there too! To be honest, the work he had done is far more noticeable than Jane’s (who I think looks pretty damn amazing).

      • the_blonde_one says:

        I personally would have shot back ‘sure, and then let’s discuss YOUR face’ to Kelly.

      • Cannibell says:

        It occurred to me that she couldn’t get away with the “Hanoi Jane” crack she would have if she’d been at her old network, so maybe this was her passive-aggressive work-around. In any case, Geez. And Fonda – bless her. She handled it like the pro she is.

    • bros says:

      not only that, but basically said ‘you guys are like, suuuuuper old, and like, wrinkly. what younger age would you like to be?”

      she’s like a stupid teenager asking questions.

  7. ArchieGoodwin says:

    I’m gonna practice that look in the mirror, for all the times people say dumb sh!t to me.

    priceless.

    • Who ARE These People? says:

      And what she said, too. “Are we really going to talk about this now?” Perfect. Jane, come to my dinner parties.

  8. Jayna says:

    She is so clueless. This show isn’t going to last.

  9. BlueSky says:

    Someone captioned this look perfectly on Twitter: “Really, Trick?”

  10. HK9 says:

    If you have Jane Fonda in front of you that’s not what you ask her….wow.

  11. smee says:

    NBC over-paid for Megyn Kelly and she’s imploding before our very eyes. There prob is a demographic that likes her, but I find her, and her ilk, to be unappealing and outdated.

    Jane Fonda killed her with one comment.

    • Who ARE These People? says:

      Good, drain the NBC coffers. They contributed their share to the mess the country’s in.

    • ELX says:

      Kelly’s like an NFL player who has great success at one team, goes for the $, and then fails at his new team–all systems are not the same and not every player is all that versatile. In the Fox milieu, Kelly appeared intelligent, partly by comparison (dumb blowhards) and partly because of what she was asked to do, read a TelePrompTer and perform some scripted interviewing. She isn’t good at the live interview format, the scripting is poor, and she clearly doesn’t have good judgment about people. Also, outside of the deliberately manufactured controversy bowl that is Fox, she’s not very interesting; she’s an obnoxious, mediocre chick with a fried blonde hank of hair and not much else to recommend her. Morning TV is particularly charm dependent, but that’s not her.

      • Tourmaline says:

        “fried blonde hank of hair” LOL LOL

      • Erbs says:

        Also stopped by to complement your description of her blonde hair. My 87 year old mother told me to watch the blonde as I might end up with a color her generation called “chicken fat yellow.” I’m back to brown. Ha ha ha.

    • Tourmaline says:

      The whole Megyn Kelly Today show rollout is so cheezy. Those commercials where she strolls around talking about how she is finding herself, let’s learn and grow together—such bull.

      I’ve never been a morning TV viewer so I’m not sure who is loving to watch Megyn every morning. Maybe my retired in laws who voted for Trump?

  12. Alexandria says:

    Her look will be a GIF!

  13. GreenBunny says:

    Sorry, but i call BS on Debra Messing. On September 21, 2017, Jezebel published an article called “Operation Make Megyn Kelly Relatable” Step 1 was book reliable guests for the show, and it specifically states “Yes, NBC is starting off with a synergistic bang by booking the cast of Will & Grace. Even if Kelly bombs, Megan Mullally will be worth watching”. So Jezebel knew they would be on her show the week before it aired, but somehow DM didn’t. If MK didn’t stick her foot in her mouth, it would have been fine. But since she pulled her usual Darth Becky self, suddenly now DM is pretending she had no idea.

    • BJ says:

      Nothing you posted proves that DM knew she was going to do MK.I just watched the Today show they just showed clips of Matt interviewing Will and Grace cast and Jane Fonda.It was obviously pre recordered because the cast was wearing the same clothes they wore the other day.These people do literally hundreds of interviews I really doubt they are told until shortly beforehand who they will be interviewed by that morning.Jezebel knowing something last week doesn’t mean NBC who booked the interviews told DM.

      • Blinkbanana says:

        Oh she knew. There is no way Debra’s publicist would have said yes to the interview without knowing who was interviewing and very likely the questions / topics of conversation. General douche-baggery you can’t anticipate so Debra is distancing herself from it.

    • lucy2 says:

      It sounds to me like the cast is very busy right now with all the promotion, so they may have missed a few write ups that mentioned it. I think it’s perfectly plausible that DM was simply just told “Today Show” as she said.

  14. Jker says:

    GRACE AND FRANKIE FOREVER! Such a great show, can’t wait for season 3. Every single character on it is not only written well but given excellent performances by a dream cast.

    • Jerusha says:

      Season 3,aired in the Spring, but I had to check to make sure. It was the season their business started getting some buzz(wink, wink).

  15. bucketbot says:

    I find Megan Kelly’s face unnatural, like she’s had work done. May not be plastic surgery but fillers,etc.

  16. Tiffany :) says:

    I loved Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox. He’s so good with telling stories about people and their inner struggles. He’s not too heavy handed or cheesy.

    I thought Jane handled herself perfectly here.

    • Angel says:

      With you, loved the Lunch Box. Watched it at least 10 times, will definitely check this one out.

    • Susanne says:

      I loved the lunchbox, too- watched it with my 12 year old daughter and it sparked a love for good filmmaking in her.
      Love frankie and grace…I want lily Tomlin to be my mom…

    • Skylark says:

      The Lunchbox is such an understated gem! Such beautiful, poignant storytelling.

      Now that I know he’s the director, really looking forward to Our Souls at Night.

    • Jerusha says:

      Loved The Lunchbox too.

  17. Neelyo says:

    Megyn can’t do morning TV, you have to be likable. It will be great to watch this humiliation go down because it’s only going to get worse from here.

  18. Sherry says:

    Megyn killed her own career. I think she’s an attorney and one of the things the Fox audience loved about her was her hard-hitting questions. She questioned politicos like an attorney.

    Then Trump happened and his sycophant fans didn’t like it when her questions zoomed in on him. They turned on her at that point and she thought, “Okay, I’ll go ‘mainstream’ and become the next Barbara Walters.”

    She doesn’t have that morning, fun and pleasant personality you need for these kinds of shows.

    I’ll be surprised if she ever recovers.

    • Anilehcim says:

      “She doesn’t have that morning, fun and pleasant personality you need for these kinds of shows.

      I’ll be surprised if she ever recovers.”

      I totally agree. I refuse to watch, but the show sounds like an abomination; I read that there is a live studio audience and a laugh track, and that while the laugh track plays the audience can be seen sitting there stone faced. People just do not like Megyn Kelly. I don’t understand why NBC spent so much money on her. I would be surprised if the show is still on by January.

  19. JC says:

    The clip is hilarious. Megyn’s desperately trying but coming up way short. Can’t stand her brittle, staccato style of questioning. Wish she would have asked Redford why he’s looking like a middle aged woman.
    Read the book—it was good.

  20. Marianne says:

    This is also why agents usually give journalists a list of whats ok and not ok to talk about.

  21. Maria F. says:

    And if you going to ask such a stupid question, at least go all in. But you could tell that she was backtracking and that made it even more cringeworthy.

    I really dislike her voice. I think for morning tv it needs to be much more soothing.

  22. thaisajs says:

    I can’t stand Jane Fonda but even I was horrified at this. She didn’t deserve that. Also, Megyn asks about her plastic surgery but not Robert Redford’s? What a double standard.

  23. Reef says:

    I’m really shocked by MK and NBC’s decision to direct her shows in this way. A bunch of people are about to get fired at NBC. I know that Oprah is her idol, but jeez she’s just completely unaware of who she is or what her strengths are – which is bizarre for someone who has a decade long on-air career.

  24. Donna says:

    Jane rules. Kelly is an idiot. For Fonda fans – Netflix has Barefoot in the Park now, which is from 1965. Fonda and Redford as newlyweds. They’re adorable.

    • lucy2 says:

      I haven’t seen that in ages! I’ll have to check it out and then watch the new one. I never read the book, but I’ve always thought the title was so interesting and pretty.

  25. Magdalene says:

    What I want to know is where they found black women who agreed to be in the audience for this horrid woman. Her comment about a black teen beaten up by a police officer in TX I will never forgive her for.

  26. Tig says:

    This look is classic! Seriously, if this tone deaf hire results in heads rolling at NBC – they deserve it. Of all the things to ask Jane Fonda about- if you aren’t going to ask her about the movie she’s there to promote- plastic surgery??? 🙄.
    I do want to check out this movie. I have really liked Redford’s last two movies- A Walk in the Woods and the ship disaster one(blanking on name)- hope this is as good.

  27. Pandy says:

    Don’t mess with Jane!! Love it.

  28. homeslice says:

    MK’s day are numbered…
    Jane does look freakin’ amazing! She did everything right with her face!

  29. magnoliarose says:

    Megyn Kelly has skated by on her looks and used them to get much further than she deserves. Again the blonde hair makes white people give a woman special treatment. It is not by accident Fox has all of those bottle blondes with pageant hair as hosts. I wonder if it is a requirement. On Fox she seemed smart in a sea of morons, but she is by no means a journalist.
    She was arrogant and fawned over for her “tough” routine but is being exposed embarrassingly on a daily basis which I love. Schadenfreude!
    They let Tamron go for this dolt.
    Tamron has partnered with the Weinsteins to produce a show to go up against Kelly.

  30. llc says:

    And what about Redford saying that he’s not a feminist?

  31. Erica_V says:

    I can not believe they got rid of Tamron Hall for this dipshit.

  32. Loo says:

    This is why actresses refuse to admit that they got plastic surgery even when it’s obvious. The media types never stop hounding them about it after they admit it.

  33. Jessica says:

    What’s the point of pointing out someone’s ‘plastic surgery’? It’s extremely rude, just like pointing out someone’s weight (big or skinny). I’m not sure why people think it’s appropriate. Whether you do it behind a computer or to their face it’s a trashy thing to do.

  34. Lady D says:

    I came to this story from the Madonna story. Jane looks amazing. The difference between Jane and Madonna’s faces is absolutely staggering when you realize Jane is 20 years older than her.

  35. Moon says:

    I have a feeling it’s not a gaffe, but a deliberate and failed attempt by MK to appear edgy.

    • Betsy says:

      That’s what I was wondering: is she stupid or does she think she can make a new name for herself, one other than Fox Barbie?

    • Veronica says:

      The fact that she thinks that’s edgy. Like, it’s f*cking Hollywood, woman. We all know they get work done.

  36. HoustonGrl says:

    She’s no barbara walters.

  37. anon says:

    I think people are blowing this out of proportion. I don’t think Jane Fonda was nearly so pissed as people seem to think; she just wanted to move on to bigger and more important things.

    I will say this, though: Megyn Kelly looks like the victim of a very bad nose job. She also has a weird amount of space between her eyes that makes me think of chihuahuas.

  38. LALA says:

    GOD, I f**king love this woman. Love her on Grace & Frankie and will FOR SURE watch this movie. Megyn Kelly came to a battle of wits unarmed, here. And I love the little chuckle Jane and Robert share, like, “Can you believe this child?” Too good.

  39. island_girl says:

    I cannot believe that NBC chose this sad sack over Tamron Hall. Awful.

  40. Lisa says:

    Damn, if I ever did anything to earn a look like that from Jane Fonda, I would pray for a quick death.

  41. Harryg says:

    I cannot stand Megyn Kelly.

  42. J says:

    Love these two! MK not so much. Are her researchers so dumb as to not know “Barefoot in the Park?”

  43. Kyra Wegman says:

    Was she planning on asking Robert Redford about the work he’s had done?

  44. Jaded says:

    If you haven’t seen Fonda and Redford in The Electric Horseman, please do. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Willy Nelson plays a small but key role in it and has one of the best lines in movie history, but I’m too much of a lady to include it here!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqM9aDbldkA

  45. puravidacostarica says:

    I only have one question and I would love it if anyone could answer it:

    Who the heck is Jane Fonda’s plastic surgeon??? (Because he or she is clearly worth his or her salt.) I think Jane looks incredible.

  46. Izzy says:

    Classless hack, with a show on a network run by a bunch of classless hacks.

  47. Adele Dazeem says:

    I just came here to say I hate Megyn Kelly. The sooner she flames out the better.

  48. tealily says:

    I hate that she has these two legends in front of her and all she can think to ask them about is the aging process and theirs pasts in one form or another. She really sucks at this.

  49. FuefinaWG says:

    MK is an a$$hole. She should stick with politics (and I still won’t watch her.) Can’t stand her!
    BTW, Redford was wrong about the sex symbol thing. It happened when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came out. Not a great movie but very handsome fellas! Newman more so than Redford.

  50. MrsPanda says:

    I live in Europe and wasn’t very familiar with Megyn Kelly until the Presidential debates last year. I thought she did well with that format but she isn’t warm or funny enough for morning TV, it is stilted and awkward. I picked up a free copy of her book in our neighbourhood book kiosk and she comes across as deep as a puddle and rather humorless, despite the ”humorous anecdotes!”. Admittedly I got bored and barely got half way through the book so maybe I’m doing her a disservice but I think she’s best at political/news coverage rather than personality-based morning TV. I actually enjoy her as an interviewer but not in this format (I never saw her on Fox so not familiar with her from those days).

  51. holly hobby says:

    So how are her ratings for that third hour? She makes Anne Curry look like the best interviewer in the world. NBC deserves what it’s getting. They fanned the flames with the Orange Turd’s tv show.

  52. JRenee says:

    Smdh. Not a peep about his very obvious and not so good plastic surgery. And yes it looks like a wig he’s wearing.

  53. Ana says:

    I mean ugh Megyn Kelly, but this is also a morning show… people talk about dumb, shallow things in morning shows because producers think that’s what homemakers want to see. She really framed that question so wrong though.

  54. Sunnyjyl says:

    I suddenly want to watch Barefoot in the Park.

  55. Jag says:

    Did she ask HIM about his plastic surgery? (I actually didn’t recognize him in the photos.)