People

By Guy D. Garcia

If a message is unpalatable, the alert political go-getter tries a captivating messenger. Or, in this case, three of them: Jane Fonda, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek, who spoke to a Democratic congressional task force last week on the plight of economically pressed farm families. Journalists and onlookers jammed the hearing room to listen to the actresses who had played farm wives in The Dollmaker (Fonda), Country (Lange) and The River (Spacek). "It is heartbreaking to witness their anguish as they watch their lives stripped away," said Lange as she choked back her emotion and brought Fonda to tears. Warned Spacek, who lives on a farm in Virginia: "Our largest and most vital industry is disintegrating." Administration officials, added Fonda, "roll over the debt of Poland more obligingly than of Iowa." Whether any lawmakers were newly inspired to fight for the farmers' cause, they were all moved at least to get in line: each wanted a picture taken shaking hands with the star witnesses.