Jane screws up, yet Jane endures. That seems to be the lesson of the success of Jane Fonda's new autobiography*. One reason Americans like Miss Fonda is that her challenges are so often their challenges. Young Jane had a bad family (cold Henry as father, the suicidal mother). Many Americans have faced the same obstacle. Adult Jane spent many of her middle years justifying her own stupid behaviour in Vietnam. Ditto American baby boomers - although their behaviour did not usually range to posing for photos with North Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns.

But there is a final Jane-related challenge still confronting the US. It is a challenge that Congress is reviewing as it moves forward on energy legislation, and it is one that George W. Bush, the president, will discuss with Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, at a forthcoming summit of the Group of Eight in Scotland. It is America's China Syndrome.