Dec. 4, 2025, 12:28 p.m. ET
Diane Keaton received a star-studded tribute at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Gala Wednesday.
Goldie Hawn and Sarah Paulson both took the stage to honor Keaton, who died from pneumonia on Oct. 11 at 79. Hawn, 80, who costarred with Keaton in “The First Wives Club,” spoke to guests through tears Dec. 3 as she remembered her friend and fellow actress.
“Then it came time when she passed, and I happened to learn when I was in my backyard, and I went over to my backyard to my rose garden,” Hawn said. “I just looked down. She can’t be gone. She just cannot be gone. No one like that should ever die. She just brought so much joy, so much life, so much exuberance. She was like lightning in a bottle.”
“She was just an extraordinary human being,” she continued. “She’s an amazing actress. Look what she can do. Look at this natural aspect of how her body and mind work together and how she’s able to bring us joy and give us emotion and all of it. But look what else she did. She wrote books. She was interested in many things, not just acting and producing, but also directing.
“She’s an incredibly hard worker,” Hawn added. “At the same time, she would come into the makeup trailer, which is my favorite thing, and she had a different hat on every day.”
She then went on to share where she thought Keaton might be in the afterlife, telling the crowd: “She is a star. We can have a fantasy; what I do is that stars are really people who died a long time ago. They did something really good for the world. I think maybe it’s where she is right now.”
Paulson, who costarred with Keaton in 1999’s “The Other Sister,” also offered praise, calling the actress “a class act.”
“I really wasn’t sure I wanted to do this, show up on a Wednesday morning to talk about one of the greatest human beings the world has ever known,” she said. “A magical creature who somehow, horribly, is no longer with us … A person beloved by the world. Her name was Diane Keaton Hall, and she was surely one of the great loves of my life.”
Paulson went on to share a trove of funny text messages Keaton had sent to her across their yearslong friendship.
In one, Keaton wrote: “Sarah, I hate your phone. It is always full, and I can never leave a message,” while in another, she quipped: “You sent me an email very recently, but it’s gone. Don’t ask why. Don’t ask what I did. I’m a loser from way back.”
In response, Paulson shared with the crowd a mock email she wished she could send to Keaton today.
“I want to tell you how much crummier the world is without you in it. I want to tell you everything that happened in my life in the 54 days since you left,” she said. “I want to tell you how the world lost its mind with grief the day you died. And I want to tell you, I will miss you forever and I continue to be a moron, and I know that you would be heartened to know that. But most of all, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being my friend.”
