THE COMMON GOOD

Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro, working together on a film, will appear at a benefit for children with birth defects linked to Agent Orange, a Connecticut veterans group announced Saturday. Fonda’s relations with Vietnam vets took a turn last month when she appeared on ABC’s “20/20” to apologize for posing for photos on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun during her 1972 trip to Hanoi. The Rev. John A. McColley, a Vietnam vet and rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Naugatuck, Conn., said the Fonda/De Niro benefit came about after a meeting between Fonda and some vets at his church. Money raised at the July 29 benefit will go to the Brandy Schieb Children’s Fund, a project of the Stamford, Conn.-based Vietnam Veterans Victims of Agent Orange, McColley said.