June 10 (UPI) — Several Hollywood stars gathered in Los Angeles to honor actress Diane Keaton with an American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.
Keaton sat in the main dais in the Dolby Theatre on Thursday night as Woody Allen made a rare appearance in Los Angeles to present the award to Keaton, who won best actress for her starring role in 1977’s “Annie Hall.”
“We go back a long way, Diane and I,” Allen said.
He then began to roast a delighted Keaton about her dating past and compared her younger self to fictional character Eve Harrington in “All About Eve,” joking that she made a Freudian slip when referring to Allen as a talented young director and “instead she called me a stepping stone.”
Keaton, 71, became the 45th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award and the ninth female honoree after Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine and Jane Fonda.
Fonda was present at the ceremony to comment on Keaton’s fashion style, including her love of hats, and provide some political commentary.
“This award is going to make a great hat stand,” she said. “She absolutely owns the color white. So tonight, in her honor, I’m wearing white. It’s not just the color of Donald Trump‘s cabinet. It’s a special white, suffragette white. Women wear white as a symbol of strength.”
Rachel McAdams appeared alongside Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon and Lisa Kudrow to discuss Keaton’s role as a mentor and reflect on three pieces of advice Keaton offered her.
“Get an assistant, don’t be too picky with men and always wear your nicest underwear,” McAdams said. “I did, I’m working on it, and I’m wearing Spanx, I failed you there.
Sarah Silverman praised Keaton for her iconic work as an actress, director, photographer, home designer and philanthropist.
“She’s one of the few women in Hollywood who has always been defined by her work and her character and not the men she’s been associated with — and by the way those men are nothing to sneeze at,” Silverman said.
