For Bette Midler, Diane Keaton will always be a friend above all.
Following Keaton’s death at the age of 79, the First Wives Club the actress paid a heartfelt tribute to her late partner
“The brilliant, beautiful and extraordinary Diane Keaton has passed away,” Midler wrote on Instagram on October 11. “I can’t tell you how unbearably sad this makes me. She was hilarious, completely original and completely devoid of the guile or competitiveness one would expect from such a star.”
The 79-year-old added: “What you saw was who she was… oh, la, lala!”
Midler and Keaton teamed up on screen alongside Goldie Hawn in the years 1996 First Wives Clubcentered on the bond between three divorcees. When the trio received a Women in Film Crystal Award for their performance, Midler called Keaton a “dear friend.”
“Deep down, I suspect that this award is not intended to recognize our work in the First Wives Club because it’s so brilliant,” she said while accepting the award, “but rather because everyone was so thrilled that three actresses of a certain age still had what it takes to deliver a $100 million movie, just like the testosterone bullies.”
