'The Butler': Jane Fonda To Play Nancy Reagan In Lee Daniels Movie

Posted: 03/26/2012 5:54 pm Updated: 03/26/2012 6:02 pm

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Just because Jane Fonda is a politically active Democrat doesn't mean she can't portray someone from the opposite side.

According to Variety, the 74-year-old actress is set to play former First Lady Nancy Regan in the upcoming film "The Butler."

Directed by Lee Daniels ("Precious"), the film follows White House butler Eugene Allen and the 34 years he spent working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Forest Whitaker is currently in talks to play Allen, with Oprah potentially playing his wife. Liam Neeson and John Cusack are being considered for the presidential roles of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, respectively.

As the Hollywood Reporter pointed out earlier this month, "[Eugene] Allen started at the White House as a 'pantry man' in 1952, when blacks weren't allowed to use public restrooms in his native Virginia. He ended up serving eight presidents and had a unique front-row seat as political and racial history was mad."

"The Butler" currently has no release date.

[via Variety]

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Just because Jane Fonda is a politically active Democrat doesn't mean she can't portray someone from the opposite side. According to Variety, the 74-year-old actress is set to play former First Lad...
Just because Jane Fonda is a politically active Democrat doesn't mean she can't portray someone from the opposite side. According to Variety, the 74-year-old actress is set to play former First Lad...
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TheOriginalTUCO
0 Fans
03:50 PM on 05/14/2012
Minor or major part, if Hanoi Jane has so much as a cameo in a film, it is poisoned. Like trying to claim being just a leeeetle bit pregnant. What was the thinking here? To cast Fonda as as Nancy Reagan is an unconscionable insult that must not stand. Mobilizing all military, veteran and patriotic networks to shun this movie with all the derision we can muster.
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glitterpet
248 Fans
12:25 AM on 04/02/2012
. . oh, one more thing? If this film remains true to it's intent, Fonda's role should be relatively minor; the film IS about Eugene Allen, NOT Nancy! Don't let this casting kerfluffle overshadow the other fine actors and the real life accomplishments of the central character.
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glitterpet
248 Fans
12:20 AM on 04/02/2012
I was actively against the war; I am female; I lost classmates, friends, . . . one cousin and my brother returned, sorta. Many, many on the repsonsible left and anti war movement DID NOT support Fonda and her antics and were vocal about it at the time, including myself. That said, I have no love for the Regan's and don't condone the grief they caused either. So maybe this paring is more appropriate than first appears, at least in my opinion.
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IPPIKIOKAMI1
63 Fans
01:54 PM on 03/29/2012
Fonda would be appropraite. Nancy Davis Regan has liberal leanings. Her two children by the President, Ronald (a male ballett dancer) and Patty Davis(she refuses to use her father's name) are flaming liberals. The movie will be another holly weird flop. The name Fonda, engenders vivid pictures in the minds of Vietnam Vets (of which I am one). The pictures of Hanoi Jane in Hanoi wearing a Viet Cong helment and uniform and perched on a VC tank or behind a an anti aircraft. That was when she was married to Tom Hayden, a staunch communist and democrat party member in California. Obama voters will be lining up to
buy tickets.
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Wyattv Earp
1 Fans
04:53 PM on 03/28/2012
Jane Fonda should be in prison for war crimes charges instead of portraying our First Lady. This is the biggest insult to our country that I've seen.
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regansbest
0 Fans
10:11 AM on 03/28/2012
Can't Hollywood find someone that is age appropriate to cast in this role. Fonda is so old and worn. Not to mention millions of us will never forgive her actions during the Viet Nam "police Action".
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viciousvirago
Veritatum Dilexi
429 Fans
10:26 PM on 03/27/2012
Jane Fonda playing the enemy? My how she's changed. And for the good. And I will say I admire her for NOT having plastic surgery. She looks like she's supposed to at that age. I applaud her very much for not giving in to the 'I have to look 29, when I'm actually 40' craze.

You're fooling no one with the surgery. And your organs are still 40. Hoorah for Fonda. May she set a trend.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
tacevad
American SS Card Carrying Socialist
1803 Fans
 
06:26 PM on 03/27/2012
a brilliant move if only to explode the bigoted heads still left.
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Wyattv Earp
1 Fans
05:05 PM on 03/28/2012
They should have used Fidel Castro to portray Ronald Reagan.
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letzelfarm
8 Fans
 
05:26 PM on 03/27/2012
I guess I could have crossed into Canada but I choose to serve when my country called upon me, subsequently deployed to two combat tours in Vietnam as a Marine. Hanai Jane called me a "war criminal" for my service. I have boycotted her movies since. This will be one more of her movies I will not be seeing.
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viciousvirago
Veritatum Dilexi
429 Fans
10:29 PM on 03/27/2012
She has apologized repeatedly for the incredibly stupid thing she did and I accept it because dad accepted it and he was a Ranger in Nam. If he can do it, so can others.

When has one of us NOT done something incredibly stupid? I sure have...lots of times. But the important thing is, at 59 I've finally learned to forgive and forget. Otherwise I'd be stuck in my 20's and arrogant and pissed off again and I'd like to think I've matured. I hope.
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letzelfarm
8 Fans
 
12:19 AM on 03/28/2012
That's great that your dad could do that and I congratulate him. I was special forces too (Recon). I took an AK round in the tummy and I was in the Naval Hospital in the Phillippines where I had my 19th birthday, and that's when I saw her with the enemy helmet on smiling and pointing their big guns south. I'll soon be 64 and I remember that as if it were yesterday. Tell your dad Hi. But No, there is no forgiving here . . .
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Al Rabideau
0 Fans
05:24 PM on 03/27/2012
I don't normally post comments online but this one takes Hollywood way over the top. Are you people so damned liberal that you can't understand the gravity of the insult you are committing by having this traitorous leftist portray such a great First Lady as Nancy Reagan? Are you honestly serious that you couldn't find someone with much higher moral and ethical character in Hollywood than Jane Fonda? How, in your feeble little minds, can you truthfully justify this travesty?

You have doomed this film to failure by this singular choice...regardless of its other actors and merits. She does not belong in this role. Get rid of her!!!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Monicalups
100 Fans
01:06 PM on 03/28/2012
LOL!
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aagtwashdcmetro
19 Fans
04:22 PM on 03/27/2012
Hanoi Jane could not hold a candle to Nancy Reagan. How could she even be considered for such a part. If she is in it I will not go see it. I made that stand since she made her stand with the Vietcong. The last movie I saw her in was Barbarella ans she was not very impressive
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cloudpuf
11 Fans
04:10 PM on 03/27/2012
JANE FONDA IS NARSISISTIC EGO DRIVEN PERSON...A DISGRACE TO AMERICA AND A BIG PHONY....ALL TOO SAD THIS FROM A 75 YEAR OLD WOMAN AIR FORCE WIDOW..THERE HAS TO BE BETTER ACTRESSES.....GET RID OF HER....
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mijsenrab
144 Fans
04:07 PM on 03/27/2012
This is an affront to every American. This is another movie I won't spend money to see. Hanoi Jane playing a first lady? Obviously the choice of some far left Hollywood types.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
db025
96 Fans
04:05 PM on 03/27/2012
She'll do anything for money.

She has no honor, no values, and no basic moral foundation.

Nancy Reagan is too good for her to portray and, as is typical from hollywierd, she is only getting the job to slap American's in the face!
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nniknaoj
0 Fans
04:04 PM on 03/27/2012
Hanoi Jane ??? I'm mm at a loss for words
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