Jane Fonda to be Honored at THR's Women in Entertainment Breakfast

The Hollywood Reporter will honor acclaimed actress, author, fitness icon, and activist Jane Fonda, with the 2011 Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at THR’s annual Women in Entertainment breakfast on Dec. 7, presented by Lifetime Networks.  

The Sherry Lansing Leadership Award annually recognizes a woman who is a pioneer and leader in her respective industry.

The award will be presented to Fonda by Lansing at THR’s annual Women in Entertainment breakfast, coinciding with the publication of THR’s annual list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment.  This year marks the 20th anniversary of Women in Entertainment which has recognized Hollywood heavyweights including Disney’s Anne Sweeney, Sony’s Amy Pascal, OWN’s Oprah Winfrey, NBCU’s Bonnie Hammer and A&E Network’s Abbe Raven.    

"Jane Fonda is an icon, someone whose passion, candor and honesty through her career has made her not only fascinating, but a true role model for so many of us,” said THR editorial director Janice Min. “I am thrilled Sherry Lansing and The Hollywood Reporter are honoring such a legend.”


Previous Sherry Lansing Leadership Award recipients include Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, Jodie Foster, Glenn Close and Barbara Walters.

Last year’s winner, Dame Helen Mirren, made international headlines with her attention grabbing acceptance speech criticizing Hollywood’s age and male biases.  "With all due respect to you many brilliant and successful women in this room," she said, “really not too much has changed in the canon of Hollywood filmmaking that continues to worship at the altar of the 18- to 25-year-old male and his penis.”

Since her screen debut in 1960, Jane Fonda, the actress, has made a strong mark in pop culture with almost 50 movies including Cat Ballou, Barbarella, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, The China Syndrome, On Golden Pond, Julia, Agnes of God, 9 to 5, Monster-in-Law and the soon to be released Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding.

Her professional accolades for acting include two Oscars -- for Klute and Coming Home -- seven Oscar nominations, two Emmys, six Golden Globes and two BAFTA’s. She also received a Tony nomination in 2009 for her stage role in 33 Variations.   

Fonda also has made a significant mark outside of Hollywood.

She has had direct involvement as founder of both the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention and the Jane Fonda Center at Emory University.  She is a co-founder and board member of the Women’s Media Center that seeks to empower the voice of women. Fonda has also served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.

In the '80s, Fonda revolutionized the fitness industry with the Jane Fonda Workout, a concept which developed a market into which she has since sold more than seventeen million fitness books, plus equal numbers of videos and recordings.

Last year, Fonda launched the boomer aimed Prime Time brand with the release of two fitness DVDs, Jane Fonda Prime Time: Fit & Strong and Jane Fonda Prime Time: Walkout, with two more DVDs scheduled for release this year.

She is the author of the 2005 #1 New York Times bestseller My Life So Far and her most recent title, Prime Time: Love, health, sex, fitness, friendship, spirit--making the most of all of your life, spent weeks this year on the New York Times bestseller list.