Jane Fonda headlines anti-offshore drilling protest in oil-slicked Laguna Beach, urges fiery supporters not to blame oil and gas workers: “They work in an industry that helped build this country!”

Famous movie star and social activist Jane Fonda turned out a crowd hundreds strong in Laguna Beach, yesterday, in order to protest off-shore oil drilling. Rage percolated amongst those who gathered on the recently oil-slicked shoreline that had just re-opened after a burst pipeline spewed over 144,000 gallons of Texas tea in into the Pacific off Huntington Beach to the north.

“Here in Laguna Beach, we have taken for granted our pristine coast, but sadly our bubble has burst by this horrific and inevitable oil spill,” Judie Mancuso, founder and president of Social Compassion in Legislation, a nonprofit organization that promotes animal rights bills, exclaimed as she began whipping up furor ahead of Fonda. “There is so much at stake already for our threatened marine wildlife.”

State Sen. Dave Min, Democrat from Irvine, came next, hotly raising the temperature to near fever by calling offshore oil derricks “menaces” and vowing to introduce a bill that would end offshore drilling forevermore.

“Even if you’re not an environmentalist, the case for ending offshore drilling is an easy one,” he said. “Oil drilling off the coast of California accounts for less than 0.3% of all U.S. oil production. It’s not even a drop in the bucket. Meanwhile, our coastal economy — based on these beautiful beaches behind me up and down the coastline — accounts for $44 billion a year, employing over a half-million Californians.”

The crowd, bearing fangs, reaching for pitchforks, was ready to take matters into its own hands when Fonda took the stage and cooled everyone right back to sensibility, urging love and respect toward gas and oil workers.

“They work in an industry that helped build this country,” the Barbarella star said. “We must not blame them. The oil and gas and coal that exists that is not being used is called stranded assets. The workers must never be stranded assets.”

While the environmentalists became lightly pacified, dropping tiki torches to the ground, a small gathering across the street began shouting that Fonda was a traitor. Oh, not because of her kind words toward roughnecks but because of that one time she went to Vietnam and sat in a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.

The Hanoi Jane years.

Long memories.