Diane Keaton will accept Woody Allen’s 2014 Cecil B. DeMille Award on his behalf at the Golden Globe Awards.
Reported exclusively by Deadline, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decided to honor Allen regardless of his attendance. Keaton, a long time friend of Allen, was approached about accepting this award on his behalf. Keaton and Allen met on his Broadway play, Play It Again, Sam. Keaton has appeared in eight of Allen’s films, including the Oscar and Golden Globe winning Annie Hall. They dated for five years and remain very good friends today.
It comes as no surprise that Allen will not be present to accept the award. He has shied away from award shows despite winning four Oscars out of 23 nominations and 13 Golden Globe nominations and two wins. He has only attended one award show, which was the 2002 Academy Awards as an ambassador of New York, where he thanked Hollywood for its support of NYC post-9/11.
“There is no one more worthy of this award than Woody Allen,” Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Theo Kingma said. “His contributions to filmmaking have been phenomenal, and he truly is an international treasure.”
The Golden Globes air January 12, 2014 on NBC at 8 p.m. (ET).