JANE FONDA - "Keep your girlfriends close!"

Jane Fonda has been married three times but says her best relationships are with women. In a candid interview, the Hollywood icon and activist talks about her difficult childhood, personal regrets and having fantastic fun behind the scenes on her new film.

- JULIET RIEDEN

Hollywood has long been pilloried for its clueless ageist casting which has seen – largely male – directors retire women from romantic leading roles once they hit the tender age of 40. But the tide has turned and heading the charge is the irrepressible Jane Fonda.

At 85, Jane is the oldest of the star-studded quartet of women blazing a trail in Book Club: The Next Chapter, and also the sassiest. In the film we see her character, commitment-phobe Vivian, finally heading for matrimony after a life of fierce independence. Sporting a sizeable rock from the lover who first proposed to her decades before, she heads off on a bachelorette romp to Rome with her girlfriends to celebrate and prepare for the big day.

This is the sequel to hit movie Book Club which grossed a jaw-dropping US$104.4 million worldwide – proof that women of a certain age really can command the limelight and at the same time make bankable movies. Jane’s sidekicks in that movie and this are powerhouse stars Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenbergen, and their combined 308 years give a fine-wine depth to the frothy comedy.

I also couldn’t help but notice that it is 73-year-old Don Johnson who plays Vivian’s lovesick fiancé. Remember him? Don became a sex symbol in the 1980s in the hit TV precinct drama Miami Vice ... In Book Club it is, of course, Jane Fonda’s character who is the foxy siren!

Such ironic casting is not lost on the audience and the tongue-in-cheek humour carries through into the plot. In a nod to classic rom-coms, one of the best scenes in the film sees Jane burning up the screen trying on wedding dresses in an haute couture bridal gown emporium in Rome. Needless to say she looks seriously hot while also having a ball.