BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
On their charming Netflix series “Grace and Frankie,” Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin play longtime acquaintances thrust into a shared life experience that forces them to embrace each other’s quirks.
On Thursday night, the two longtime real-life friends appeared at Flourish event center in Buckhead for the annual “Empower” party and fundraiser for Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, which Fonda founded 21 years ago.
Zipping in from Colorado for a few hours, where she’s filming the Netflix movie “Our Souls at Night” with Robert Redford, the always-elegant Fonda told the several hundred well-heeled attendees, “It’s good to be back in Atlanta – this was my home for 20 years.”
A primary focus of GCAPP is sex education among young people, and Fonda reported progress in the decrease in teen births around the country.
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“So many young people don’t know what a healthy relationship is supposed to look and feel like,” she said from the stage.
As a crowd that included CeeLo Green dined on pot roast and chicken, a spirited auction unfolded.
High-end packages such as five days at Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch sold for $50,000, while lunch for four with Fonda on the set of “Grace and Frankie” sold twice for $36,000 a pop (the ever-game Tomlin chimed in that the winner could also sleep in her trailer). Green also served an impromptu offering – a recording party with the soul man himself (two packages at $18,000 quickly disappeared).
The event raised $1.1 million for GCAPP.
Following the auction, Fonda and Tomlin sat for a fun, frank chat moderated by CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux.
On Nov. 1, GCAPP will launch the Power Society, a group of community-minded individuals committed to the well-being of young people. Through membership, they will provide GCAPP with year-round financial support to advance work in teen pregnancy prevention, relationships and nutrition.
For more information, check out www.gcapp.org, and take a listen to Fonda and Tomlin below.
