Diane Keaton accepts leadership award at 21st annual Women in Entertainment breakfast

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – When Diane Keaton learned she would receive the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, the 66-year-old actress immediately began panicking about her speech.

Keaton accepted the diamond-and-ruby-encrusted prize Wednesday at the Hollywood Reporter’s 21st annual Women in Entertainment breakfast honouring the most powerful women in Hollywood.

She opened by warning that her speech wasn’t funny, then proceeded to crack up the crowd inside the ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The Oscar winner said her speech “had to be way better than Meryl Streep’s speech or Jane Fonda or Helen Mirren” — all previous Lansing Award winners. Keaton’s talk paid tribute to her late mother, whom she called “my first and most inspired leader.”

Wednesday’s breakfast coincides with the publication of the Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 ranking of entertainment’s most influential women.