Quote of the Day (Diane Keaton, on Warren Beatty, Smooth Operator)

“When I compare Mother’s relationship with Father to mine with Warren [Beatty], there’s no question Warren’s promises were far more seductive than Jack Hall’s could ever be. After I confessed I was terrified to fly, Warren surprised me as I was about to board a flight to New York, took my hand, walked me into the plane, sat down still holding my hand, and never let me go until we landed. Once safe on the ground he kissed me, turned around, and flew back to L.A. On Valentine’s Day he bought me a sauna for one bathroom and a steam room for the other. He was full of magnanimous gestures. He also filled my head with crazy thoughts: I could be a director, a politician, as well as one of the most revered actresses in the world if I wanted. I would laugh and tell him he was out of his mind. But I loved it, every second, and I loved him, especially his insane largesse.”—Diane Keaton, Then Again (2011)

Years ago, after watching The Witches of Eastwick, a friend of mine had a dream involving star Jack Nicholson. “I’m going to get you,” he told her with the same devilish grin as his character in that movie, Darryl.

“Oh, no you’re not,” she shot back.

“Oh, yes I will!” he answered.

“Oh, no you’re not.”

“Oh, yes I will!”

“Well,” my friend concluded, laughing, “he got me, all right!”

The same self-confidence, if not the same mischievous air, for years was part of the modus operandi of Nicholson’s good friend Warren Beatty. In her recent memoir, Ms. Keaton recounts a piece of gossip related by a friend about a pick-up by the legendary lothario that ended up in the Waldorf Astoria, and how “we all swore we would never fall into that kind of trap. Not us.” Naturally, like my friend in her dream with Nicholson, Ms. Keaton did.

Over the years, in addition to Ms. Keaton, Beatty’s conquests included Joan Collins, Natalie Wood, Leslie Caron, Michelle Phillips, Britt Ekland, Janice Dickinson, Julie Christie, Carly Simon, Goldie Hawn, Isabelle Adjani, Madonna, Elle Macpherson, and Annette Bening (the only woman to get him to the altar). 

Whew, my fingers got tired just typing all those names! But evidently, Beatty’s seldom did. (What inevitably comes to mind at this moment is Woody Allen’s wish that, if there is reincarnation, he’d like to come back “as Warren Beatty’s fingertips.”)

The eternal question—why did so many women, when it came to the star, do one thing after starting out to do the other?—can only be partly explained that he was, as Ms. Keaton put it, “drop-dead gorgeous.” There’s also his keen intelligence as a film professional (witness his work on Reds, which, as I wrote in a prior post, was one of the most ambitious and fully realized epics in Oscar history), and even, astonishingly enough for a self-evident narcissist, the deep kindness and generosity recorded in Ms. Keaton’s memoir. 

Today, Shirley MacLaine’s little brother turns 75. The most wonderful thing I can say about this star, who has been in the business now for 50 years, is his acceptance speech for the 2008 American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, when he thanked his industry for leading him to Bening, “who has given me the most important thing of all, which is her love.”