JANE FONDA : 'OSCAR WINNER-ARREST CLIMATE'

OSCAR-winner Jane Fonda was arrested Friday outside the US Capital, where she was protesting climate change and demanding action to protect the environment.

The 81-year-old film star, longtime activist and exercise guru, was taken into custody with several others after 10 minutes of protesting on the Capital steps, a video posted on Friday Facebook page showed.

''Today, the United States Capital Police arrested 16 individuals for unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of US capital,'' a police spokeswoman said in a statement that did not identify those detained.

Fonda, dressed in a bright red overcoat, chanted climate action slogans before she was handcuffed and led away to cheers from fellow protesters.

The protest may become a familiar site on Capital Hill. Fonda recently told the Los Angeles Times that she was moving to Washington for four months, fully committed to fighting global warming with a passion similar to that of Swedish teenager and climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Speaking to a small gathering before her arrest, Fonda decried the ''man-made-crisis'' of climate change and said she and other activists would be returning to Capital Hill ''every Friday at 11:00, rain or shine or snow or blizzard or whatever.'' for a series of rallies.

''This is a collective crisis that demands collective action now,'' she said.

Climate change has emerged as a prominent issue in US politics and several candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination have released major and ambitious climate action platforms..

Fonda starred in US movie classics like 9 to 5 and On Golden Pond, as well as the recent Netflix series Grace and Frankie.

She won an Oscar for Best Actress for 1971's ''Klute and Coming Home'', from 1978. [AFP]