STARS FLOCK TO HONOR ‘LA-DI-DA’ LADY, DIANE KEATON
So finally, this had happened, Diane was honored by The Film Society of Lincoln Center. You can read first report from the event under cut and see more pictures here
A quartet of trumpeters marched down the aisles of Avery Fischer Hall onMonday night, opening the festivities for LinconCenter's Gala Tribute to Diane Keaton. The annual gala tribute series, serves as a celebration of Hollywood's living legends (past recipients have included Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn) by those who have known them best.
The tribute was notable for the brilliance and hilarity of the speeches and the remarkable lack of specificity. It was as if no one would—or could—violate her exaggerated sphere of privacy.
On the phone last week, Diane Keaton told a reporter what she dreaded most about the evening. “How do you express gratitude?” she asked. “That seems to me to be the most difficult thing.”. It wasn’t the exposure that scared her most; it was having to acknowledge the people who came to praise and cheer. A riven exhibitionist, Keaton normally makes a show of hiding in public. Tonight, she’d have to lose the hat and dark glasses, smile big, and take the compliments without flinching.
Sarah Jessica Parker began the evening with a funny, genuinely humble tribute to an actress who combined the screwball grace of a Carole Lombard with a distinctly modern self-awareness.
"Tonight in many ways is probably [Keaton's] worst nightmare," said Parker, the first of many to discuss Keaton's sense of privacy and discomfort at discussing herself, "because of her insane inability to take a compliment without rolling her eyes."
Woody Allen strolled onstage in a blue sweater and brown corderoy pants avoiding the tux that everymen wore that night. Woody´s speech was as unusual as he is. Allen remembered he had earlier asked Keaton if she wanted to subject herself to a gala where she would be "bathed in obsequious adulation all night." Her response? "She liked that idea."
He called her “Keaton,” not “Diane,” and did a bit on the passive-aggressive Diane about how he wrote his movies giving the laughs and best business to himself, and how she invariably took them for herself. At first, he sangpraises for the actress in a low key - she is "punctual," "thrifty" and "she has a wonderful handwriting . . . I'm reaching here." At one point he noted "she is not beautiful in the conventional sense; I mean pleasing to the eye." The audience roared at this restraint, and there were cackles from Diane in the box. But then he addressed her, with tremulous sincerity, as “my guiding light”— ”—and coming after clips of Sleeper, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, suddenly the world wasa better place.He ended his speech saying Diane was "one of the two or three greatest comediennes that the world has ever seen.".
Meryl Streep followed. "What is it about Diane?" she asked. "Why does she own such a singular place in our culture? What makes here such an all-American girl, but still popular in France? What makes here more feminine than any of the sexpots half her age? Why can't I put together outfits like that? I mean, I try. There are many answers to these questions, but what is inescapable is her loveliness. She breaks men's hearts and mends women's."
It was Streep´s speech who caught Keaton best. She alone spoke of acting with her—of being awed by the way, in their big scene in Marvin’s Room, “she walked up to the edge of her own fears.”
She said she suspects that Keaton’s “flutter” and “whirligigs” are “a bit of a feint to distract attention from her formidable intelligence,”then Meryl walked off the stage after saying, "I love you, Diane, even though you never, ever call me!"
To explain Diane´s immense appeal, Lisa Kudrow stole the night by reading the transcript of a legal deposition of Keaton in her voice, explaining that the actress' iconic blustering vocal mannerisms did not stop offscreen ("So, is she somebody? I mean... I don't know, maybe? No, I don't know, is she... maybe... did I... I'd hate to think, but I just..."). "That's the genius of Diane Keaton," said Kudrow. "She's so disarming. Nobody's going to ask her to testify."
Lisa counts Keaton as a "very strong" influence. "I lean on everything she says or does … I just steal. I do."
Candice Bergen remarked that she and Diane were the only two women ever to live in Hollywood and admit that they were 60 years old, and she (Candice) had to leave there as "they only write one role a year for women this age, and I had to leave it to Diane."
When Martin Short took the stage, he got the biggest laughs from the crowdwhen he made reference to Keaton and her former co-star, Mel Gibson, from the film "Mrs. Soffel."Short said, facetiously, that he'd seen the pair having lunch one day. He "overheard" Keaton say to Gibson, with a pause for effect: "What are we going to do about all the Jews?"
Short stands outhimself as as fan, colleague, friendwhen it comes to Keaton, his Father of the Bride co-star. "I think she's kind of sensational in everything.
The writer and director Nancy Meyers, remembered their discussion of the latter’s nude scene in Something´s Gotta Give. “Diane said, ‘I guess somebody my age should be naked in a movie. It might as well be me.’
One ofthe best moments of the night came whileMeyers was praising Diane. She told a story about the dramatic filming in "Something's Gotta Give" when Jack Nicholson chases after a disillusioned Diane, who has discovered him in a restaurant dining with a 25-year-old. Nancy said the day was fraught, as it was a big scene and everyone was on edge. After the filming, Jack came to Nancy and whispered. "Nancy . . . Nancy . . . Diane told me that she loved me!" He was shaken. Nancy said, "Yes, Jack - that's how the scene was written!" Jack shook his head: "God! She is good. I thought she really meant it!"
Steve Martin had unearthed a program from a Santa AnaCommunity College production of Carousel in which Keaton (as Diane Hall) performed the lead role and on which Martin was a stagehand. The two never knew each other until years later, finally working together on two Father of the Bride films in the 1990s "This is what it's like to be married to Diane Keaton: At 5 o'clock every morning, an hour of make-up and hair. And the good-morning kiss? It's not like 'Hello,' or 'I love you.' It's six or seven times! And it's over nd over and over, and she'll say, 'Until we get it right!' Then we'll have an argument, but it won't be once or twice, but 27 times. From every angle! And it'll be the same exact argument over and over and over. And then? When it's all over? She'll say, 'Hey, what's new?' Let's go to lunch.' And I'll tell you about the sex, and I hope it won't leave this room: All sex was entirely simulated. And if we had a bed scene to do, I would get into bed, and I would hear a 'clink.' She would be wearing armor panties.
Later, at his speech he recalled her singing onstage for his tribute at KennedyCenter, so he felt it fair to repay Diane effort by sitting down and playing a lovely melody at his banjo. Diane Keaton arrived soon afterward to accept her award from Martin.Diane was remarkable-looking in a long black skirt and beautiful white blouse. (She sure puts those red carpet bimbos of Hollywood to shame!) And her tinted shades make her look even more beautiful. She said her 6-year-old son had told her, "I really like your hair, Mom. But I say that to all the girls!"
From Keaton’s speech, which was beautiful and searching—a fusion of her lives as an actress, director, photographer, and lover of famous creative men.
“All my life I wanted to perform,” she began, then went on to describe herself standing in her driveway singing her heart out to the night sky but in her first public performance bursting into tears and running offstage. Now when she acts, she can do it “in secret, with a small family called the crew.”
Apologizing for her grandiosity, she spoke of “a parade of intensely romantic encounters with extraordinary people.” She had just watched Annie Hall for the first time since it came out, in 1977, and saw “that young woman who used to be me grasping for some way to express the delight she found” in Allen’s Alvy Singer.
In Reds, she saw a look of forgiveness on the face of Warren Beatty’s John Reed that somehow traveled into the present.She was especially gracious in returning the tributes of her fellow actresses.
"Even though I never thought of these encounters as particularly romantic," Keaton said, "watching us grapple with love and life on film reminded me that we had known this sublime journey to the depths of feeling as an intelligence. To me, this intelligence is a romance, too -- a romance nurtured on the best of what a human being can aspire to -- a romance in reality. So I still feel like little Diane, who wanted to be a movie star. I'm still that sad-faced girl, all knotted up in tears running off the stage only to revisit the terror of performing over and over again and again. And I guess the reason is that sometimes after the terror, you do reach a reach a beautiful plateau; you do discover a moment that feels like it will live on forever."
At the end Diane sang a verse from “Seems Like Old Times” the way she did in Annie Hall, affectionate audibly, then quoted a character in her second feature, Unstrung Heroes, who says, “Documentation is key.” “Looking at us then and looking at us now is all the documentation I needed to recognize that these encounters, no matter how fleeting, are all I know of heaven.”
Diane Keaton´s wordswere a 10-minute long and it was one of the best acceptance speeches ever heard. She tributedto acting, to her fellow peers and she included the audience in a kind of affectionate, encompassing gesture of loving gratitude. Because she is the girl who wanted to be a movie star, and she said frankly, that is what she had become. But most of all, her huge achievement is that night nobody couldn´tget enough of this great actress, cause to know Diane Keaton is to love her.
and here's review of Nadia (hostess of Unstrung heroine) who was lucky to be there...:
" prior to tonight, my date told me that she might have an "in" at lincoln center and could possibly get us back stage. i was originally going to bring my camera bag and stalk diane afterwards, but with this, i saw an opportunity to get into the press room and immediatley started to call everyone i knew to see if they would lend me a digital camera. i didn't think they would let me in with all my paraphenalia without a press pass. of course no one would let me borrow their camera!!! so crazy nadia went to the store 3 HOURS before the ceremony started and bought one. yes, i am insane.
anyway, that contributed to my total lateness to the event. at any rate, once we arrived at lincoln center, everyone had pretty much arrived (except meryl streep). we got do to the whole "walk down the red carpet" bit, with the press and all the public watching. (of course no one cared about us, but whatever, it was still exciting!)
we got inside and immediately met up with my date's contact, so we got to skip the horrible lines. the plan was pretty much to see how far they would let us go without stopping and asking us for proper ID. . .well, we got all the way up to the green room. it was surreal, let me tell you. the minute we walked in, carol kane waltzed right behind us and i think i stopped breathing for a second. diane was up on a little stage in front of the press, posing for pictures. i pushed my way up as far as i could get and stood on my toes (i'm short!) to try and get pictures. i have 2 that sort of came out ok, which i will post tomorrow (can't figure it out right now. i'm lucky i was able to figure out how to use the camera at that point!) thankfully i had worn heels, otherwise i would never have gotten those pictures.
i can't even begin to describe how it felt to be in the same room as her. i almost started to cry, it was really overwhelming. looking back, i probably could have gotten even closer to her, said something, if i had wanted to be obnoxious. . .but i'm glad i didn't make a fool out of myself, because it was totally her night and i wouldn't want her to think back on that weird fan who practically threw herself onto the stage whilst the press was shooting their photographs.
let me just say that she is absolutely GORGEOUS in person. i knew she would look good, but honestly, nothing could have prepared me for how amazing she looked off camera. she is flawless. it's almost unbelievable. i think she looks better in person than she does in films or in magazines!!!
after i got my few pictures, we went out of the room for a bit becaus it was quite crowded. since we hadn't been caught as "imposters" yet, we had a few drinks at the bar (free! yay!) and THEN who shows up at the bar? yes, meryl streep. we were THISCLOSE to her. actually closer to her than i was to diane.
she's another one who looks amazing in person, although not as tall as i would have thought her to be. anyway, my friend and i both went to the same alma matter as meryl and lisa kudrow (who was also there, but i didn't get to see her face to face). we were debating whether or not to go up to her and say something, when another fan beat us to the punch. he was a little pushy, i will say, but when he started to talk it was really genuine. . ."i'm such a huge fan, this is a great honour for me, blah blah blah."
meryl looked at him like he had the plague or something and was very cold. bordeline rude i would say. we were quite shocked! i'm sure if it had been diane, she would never have acted in such a manner towards a fan. i mean, it's annoying to have strangers interrupt you all the time, but as an actress, you have to expect that will happen by now. especially at a public event! i was extremely let down by her behaviour because i am a great fan of her as well. needless to say, my friend & i did NOT approach we saw her roll her eyes as she walked away from this poor guy.
the bell started to ring, so we went out of the green room area. we got to see the stage and everything before we took our seats. right as we were going up the back entrance stairs to our seats, who did we run into? steve martin!!!! eeeee!!! it was so exciting.
the whole ceremony was little movie montages intercut by guest speakers praising diane. the speakers were: sarah jessica parker, woody allen, meryl streep, martin short, candace bergen, nancy meyers, steve martin and lisa kudrow.
i thought the funniest speech was from martin short, and the most heartfelt was from sarah jessica parker. she said things that seemed to be taken straight out of my heart. . .about how before she even met diane, she felt this amazing spiritual connection with her. it was a really beautiful speech and to top it off, she sang her a song at the end.
i won't even begin to try to recap martin short's speech because it won't do it any justice. let's just say i cried from laughing so hard.
the themes in everyone's speeches were pretty similiar. . .they all talked about diane as an individual, and how she is unlike anyone they've ever known. everyone also discussed how self-effacing she is and unable to take a compliment. but this we already knew!
at the very end, diane came out and thanked everyone. she spoke about how seeing all the montages effected her. . .she made this juxtaposition between the "love fades" theme in "annie hall" and how that for her, this is not necessarily true. she said she felt all those emotions so keenly, as if it had just been yesterday. even if they only exist in one time, one moment. . .they're real. they don't fade. she belted out a few lines from "seems like old times", and then out of NO WHERE her whole frame shook and she started to cry. i swear, there was not a dry eye in the house. i was SOBBING like a child. she ended by saying that she felt so thankful to have shared so many wonderful moments with wonderful people. . .not just the ones who honoured her tonight, but all of us (fans). . .that maybe we were all sharing, one single moment in time.
and then i cried again just thinking about this beautiful moment that i had with her."
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