Diane Keaton's sudden dying on October 11, 2025, at age 79 spurred an outpouring of grief and celebration of a lady who touched numerous lives via her work. Keaton starred in beloved films resembling Annie Corridor, The First Wives Membership and One thing's Gotta Give — the sorts of flicks that many develop up with and like to revisit when the best temper strikes.
However within the days that adopted, her dying additionally prompted extra severe conversations concerning the components of the late actress' life that weren't fairly as universally beloved, resembling her longtime friendship and help of once-boyfriend Woody Allen. The director, who married his ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow's daughter Quickly Yi Previn in December 1997, was additionally accused of sexually molesting his daughter Dylan Farrow, who he adopted with Mia.
As Keaton, who adopted her personal daughter and son when she was in her 50s and who famously championed her resolution to stay single for many of her maturity, was celebrated for her feminist views and unconventional decisions, many struggled to sq. their notion — or maybe projection — of who they believed she was with who she may need really been.
That response isn't distinctive to Keaton's passing, Dr. Wilsa Charles Malveaux informed Us Weekly by cellphone name, and it's additionally a deeply human response that's primarily based on “not simply the flicks and the roles” a star like Keaton is portraying, “however even simply what they let folks see.”
As a result of it's straightforward to type a parasocial relationship with the actors, artists, musicians and athletes that so many people admire, it's generally tougher to do not forget that public figures so typically reside a twin life: “You could have the particular person, the fuller, precise human being — the opposite half of the truth of who they're — that we don't usually get entry to,” Malveaux additionally mentioned. “I believe folks get caught up admiring, and in some circumstances, idolizing, the persona and forgetting that it's nonetheless an individual. And no one's all good or all dangerous. All of us have flaws.”
This dynamic was on show following the deaths of Hulk Hogan, who died July 24, 2025, at age 71, and NBA star Kobe Bryant, who died January 26, 2020, at age 41. Each males have been largely celebrated within the instant aftermath of their deaths, however, like Keaton, impressed bigger conversations about their sophisticated histories within the days and weeks that got here after.
(Hogan used racial slurs to explain daughter's ex-boyfriend in 2007, and mentioned in the identical dialog that, “I'm a racist, to a degree.” He later apologized for utilizing the time period. Bryant was charged with felony sexual assault in July 2003; the prison case was dismissed the next 12 months.)
Maybe one of many extra complicated realities that many followers undergo following the dying of an individual with a sophisticated legacy is that there are sometimes different well-known folks — usually who're additionally deeply admired by the general public — who come out to defend the just lately deceased. It might probably make one query one's personal perceptions and beliefs.
“Within the case of Diane Keaton supporting Woody Allen, we all know what has been mentioned about him from his daughter and from his ex-partner,” Malveaux mentioned. “And there's undoubtedly a necessity an da push to imagine sexual assault survivors. We don't know what his relationship with Diane Keaton was, however it wasn't just a few random colleague that she was supporting.”
She continued: “There are folks and different celebrities, too, that believed him when he mentioned he was harmless and that he didn't do it. We're type of judging issues with the courtroom of public opinion and primarily based off the data we get with the media, social media, and the press — however that's not the entire image, so it's actually arduous for us to know [how to feel].”
In response to Malveaux, that is the purpose at which cognitive dissonance performs a serious function in what an individual decides subsequent. “So, principally, you will have two conflicting concepts: you imagine this particular person is an effective particular person and so they suit your ethical values — however then you definately discover out they're related to a heinous crime. These two issues don't mesh nicely in your mind and so they trigger you discomfort.”
Diane Keaton and Woody Allen Getty Pictures
The result's normally one in all three issues, she added. An individual will change their beliefs to swimsuit the brand new actuality as they now perceive it, or they'll determine “they don't suppose it is a good particular person anymore.” With this answer, “these two issues aren't in battle” anymore.
Some folks may even select to “ignore the a part of the concept's problematic to them. They'll simply not take note of the allegations, for instance, or they'll keep away from conditions which may spotlight the place these two issues come into battle.”
This sample of conduct is particularly related when contemplating the lives and legacies of Keaton, Hogan, and Bryant. For a lot of, Keaton won't ever cease being an unimaginable actress and mannequin for girls, regardless of her help for a person who allegedly harmed a lady. Hogan may even be a wrestler who impressed others — together with Black wrestlers such as Kazeem Famuyide — to pursue the game, regardless of the racism he admitted to. And Bryant, the daddy of 4 daughters and coach to many younger ladies in his later years, may even all the time be the person accused of sexual assault.
In the end, that is the purpose the place the age-old query comes into play: is it potential to separate the artwork from the artist? I personally have two Harry Potter-themed tattoos that I bought in 2012 and 2015, respectively — years earlier than writer J. Okay. Rowling first made her anti-trans feedback. I contemplate myself a robust ally to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, and have typically questioned if I ought to alter the tattoos in some significant method. However they're nonetheless there, as a result of there's a part of me — the half that first picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 1999 and was launched to a world that carried me via challenges and triumphs for years — that also loves the collection and every part it has introduced into my life.
Maybe one path towards mitigating the warring sides of this dialog is knowing that after we rejoice a star, we aren't actually celebrating that complete particular person. “We've got to acknowledge how a lot we're placing on the general public picture and the persona” that somebody tasks, Malveaux informed Us. “We've got to acknowledge that despite the fact that we'd fall in love with the persona, they're nonetheless an individual, and we will't be stunned if one thing comes out that doesn't align with our values.”
Most crucially, she additionally mentioned, “We should acknowledge that [in any situation] we don't have all the data. As a lot data as we do have entry to, we don't have all of it.”
Woody Allen is talking out following the dying of Annie Corridor costar Diane Keaton. “It's grammatically incorrect to say ‘most original,' however all guidelines of grammar, and I suppose the rest, are suspended when speaking about Diane Keaton. Not like anybody the planet has skilled or is unlikely to ever see once more, her face and chortle […]
In the end, it's as much as every of us to sq. our private values with the methods we eat popular culture and who we individually look as much as, rejoice and admire. For me, that has meant not participating straight with Bryant's legacy however fortunately talking to among the now-young ladies who he labored with; it additionally signifies that I'll most likely preserve my Harry Potter tattoos and will certainly nonetheless watch a Diane Keaton film sometimes (I've by no means been a wrestling fan and have no real interest in changing into one). That's one thing I'm okay residing with for now — and it's one thing that I, and all of us, all the time have the capability to alter sooner or later if that's what we determine to do.
