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By Jay Boyar/Orlando Sentinel TORONTO — Diane Keaton is not the Mama Bear type. She’s more like Kipling’s cat, the one that walks by himself. In fact, she can describe her experience with babies, prior to making “Baby Boom,” in a single word: ‘‘Zero.” But, in the new screen comedy, Keaton plays a corporate careerist whose just-business life style is dramatically disrupted when she sud denly inherits a 13-month-old. For the 41-year old actress, that meant getting to know Kristina and Michelle Kennedy, the twins who shared the role of the baby with each other — and some of the movie's best scenes with Keaton. “They were great, actually,” she purrs. “It's like working with animals. It was like. Their behavior was so pure, they could do nothing wrong. They were always brilliant, and it was just incredible. I wish I could be like that my self, as an actress. It would be very good, and I would be very good if I could.” Actually, there is little disagreement that Diane Keaton is very good — pure, animal be havior or no pure, animal behavior. She may even be great. From her work in such Woody Allen comedies as “Sleeper” and “Play It Again, Sam” to her Academy Award-winning role in Allen's seriocomedy ‘‘Annie Hall ’ to her dra matic performances in “Shoot the Moon,” “Looking For Mr. Goodbar,”’ ‘‘Reds” and the “Godfather” movies, Keaton has proved her re markable talent time and again. “Baby Boom,” written and directed by Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers (the “Private Benjamin” team), represents Keaton’s first major comic statement in several years, unless you include her performance in last year’s com edy-drama ‘Crimes of the Heart.” (An “odd breed,” she calls the film. “I’ve always liked to do comedy, I think it’s just that I didn’t come across any good ones,”’ she says, sounding rather finicky about movie scripts, too. ‘Once you've been in, you know, those Woody Allen comedies, it’s sort of like, forget it. I mean, they're so good, so what are you going to do, huh?” Talking about comedy, ‘“‘Baby Boom” and, especially, the little Kennedy kids is no problem for Keaton, who notes how quickly they ad justed to being held upside down, how pleasant it was to take them for strolls, and how easily she could tell Kristina (‘‘energetic and outgo ing’’) from Michelle (‘“‘quieter” and ‘“‘sweet’’). But, when talk turns to whether she, herself, the real Diane Keaton, gave any thought to be coming a mother while playing with her screen children, she retreats into generalities and pro tective vagueness. “Sure. Yeah. Yeah,” says the star, her green gray eyes darting and narrowing. “Of course I did, because you’re around them all the time, and there they are. There you are. I think it’d be nice. Really great. It’s a question of, you know, other things Her voice trails off. Other topics Keaton leaves in the bowl in clude her much-publicized past relationships with Woody Allen and Warren Beatty, and a rumored new liaison with Al Pacino. “I don’t have anything to say about that, ac tually,”’ she says, somehow managing not to hiss. She is willing to discuss a new project she hopes to produce but not direct or star in. It's a remake of “‘The Blue Angel,”’ the 1930 Josef von Sternberg classic in which Marlene Dietrich starred as a cabaret entertainer. Kea ton sees it as a vehicle for Madonna. “I thought she was perfect for it, ’ says Kea ton. “I just thought that story and Madonna was, like, a very good idea because she would be great in that part ... I see in her a Marlene Dietrich-ish type woman who is clever and funny and conniving and interesting ... It would be an extension, to me, of ‘Desperately Seeking Susan.’ That kind of street girl and, you know, bright ... I thought she was great in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan.” ~
Newspaper Details
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Fri, Oct 30, 1987
Page 55
Full Page
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USA 18 Jul 2026
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