Greg in Hollywood’s memories (and a few photos) of the late, great movie icon Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton’s death is being deeply felt by many, including me. I was a tremendous fan of her incredible body of work. She was also one of my very first celebrity interviews when I transitioned out of hard news to entertainment stories back in 2001. For a cover story for Orange Coast Magazine, I met Miss Keaton at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel and over tea and scones, we talked about her movies, about the night she won the Oscar for “Annie Hall,” about her ex-boyfriends Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino and about her Orange County roots. I have a copy of the magazine somewhere deep in a storage bin in the garage! She was so down-to-Earth and all the good things people say about her. She was a real person who happened to be a movie icon. I don’t have a single photo of the encounter because In those days, we didn’t have cell phones to take selfies and it was considered uncool for a journalist to take photos with their interviewees- even though it is now done all the time. Our next interview was in 2008 for the LA Daily News for Miss Keaton’s largely-forgotten movie Smother and that wasn’t as memorable because it was on the phone and far shorter.

So that’s about it as far as my encounters with Diane Keaton until I took these photos of her on June 8, 2017. I was heading to an event at The Hollywood Museum and parked at the Hollywood & Highland parking structure across the street. Was walking out to the street just as Miss Keaton was making her way down a very long red carpet leading to the Dolby Theatre. I paused for about 45 seconds and was able to snap these photos of her graciously greeting fans. Inside the Dolby Theatre on that night, Miss Keaton was presented with one of the most prestigious honors in the movie business: The American Film Institute Life Achievement Award – one of the highest honors in the movie business. And well deserved. For the record: My all-time favorite Diane Keaton films: Something’s Gotta Give, Baby Boom, First Wives Club, The Family Stone and Marvin’s Room.