Megyn Kelly's jab at Jane Fonda on Monday could scare away stars from her "Today" show, multiple talent representatives told The Hollywood Reporter, as the war of words between the NBC host and the Academy Award-winning actress moved from the back to the front burner.
A TV news analyst, though, said Kelly may have planned the surprisingly hard slap to toughen up her image.
Kelly, host of "Megyn Kelly Today," was spurred to respond to recent Fonda insults that stemmed from their chilly September interview in which Fonda shut down Kelly's questions about plastic surgery, THR said.
It happened during the first week of Kelly's show and the topic was something that Fonda had openly discussed before.
In a Variety interview published last weekend, Fonda went after Kelly when she was asked if she would ever do her show again.
"It wasn't like I was upset," Fonda said referring to Kelly's plastic surgery question. "I was stunned. It was so inappropriate. It showed that she's not that good an interviewer. But if she comes around and learns her stuff, sure."
Kelly went after Fonda the next day, having NBC News management that she would take on Fonda during her show, THR said.
Kelly noted that Fonda had openly talked about plastic surgery before and said she had "no regrets" about asking about the surgery, adding, that she was not,"… in the market for a lesson from Jane Fonda on what is or is not appropriate," all per The New York Post’s Page Six.
"This is a woman whose name is synonymous with outrage," Kelly said, referring to a photo of Fonda taken during the Vietnam War of the acress on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, which angered many Americans who dubbed her "Hanoi Jane."
"Look at her treatment of our military during the Vietnam War. The moral indignation is a little much. Honestly, she has no business lecturing anyone on what qualifies as offensive."
The slam against Fonda led to multiple anonymous talent representatives telling THR that they would "think twice" about booking a client on Kelly's show.
"The problem is that nobody at NBC is controlling Megyn," one source told the Post, adding that NBC staffers were surprised by the verocity of the Fonda takedown. "They paid her more than $20 million to host the 9 a.m. show, and she's been given too much power.”
"But the fact remains: You can't say those things, or be so aggressive, on morning TV. Plus, Megyn was already having trouble booking celebrities — so how is she ever going to book other stars if they disagree and she goes on air later and trashes them?" the source added.
TV news analyst Andrew Tyndall told THR, though, that Kelly wants to be known as a no-nonsense reporter and she is staking her career on it.
"What this tells me is that Megyn is trying to carve out the niche for herself, which is 'I’m going to be harder, I'm going to be the hard person at 9,'" Tyndall said. "She is saying, 'I will not back away from asking tough questions even if it makes me look like a bully or rude or crossing a line. It's better that I have the reputation for asking tough questions.'"