What you need to know
Diane Keaton was hilarious, talented, and definitely stylish. She was also a serious shopper.
“I remember one day she invited me to a swap meet at the Rose Bowl, and I had no idea how seriously she was taking it,” Kimberly Williams-Paisley tells PEOPLE about co-starring with Keaton in the ’90s film Father of the Bride.
“It was unbelievable,” Williams-Paisley, 54, said of the monthly event. “Of course, we had to go as soon as it opened. She had a special swap meet cart. It’s like a collapsible cart that fits in the trunk. She took it out of the trunk and popped it open. And it was very serious. She showed up in a Diane Keaton formal dress that covered every inch of her skin.”
She added: “We were completely unprepared for what we were about to experience.”
Williams-Paisley remembers Keaton being “very kind” and saying, “Okay, it’s five dollars. Go get me something. I need to buy something.” So I remember we bought this little plastic flower, and she bought me a pancake maker and all kinds of things. She loved a good swap meet. ”
Keaton, who died on Saturday, October 11, at the age of 79, once told Oprah Winfrey that he loved buying shoes at swap meets. “I love swap meets. Even though they’re fancy, I usually buy my shoes there,” she said at the time.
Suzanne Hanover/Touchstone/Kobal/Shutterstock
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Williams-Paisley says working with the legend was one of the highlights of her life. “She was a really wonderful aunt. She was like a mentor to me.”
Her story is not the only one detailing Keaton’s love of making antiques and unearthing treasures at flea markets. On Facebook, one user posted about meeting her at a Long Beach flea market.
User vindustrial_supplyco wrote, “I met Diane Keaton about 10 years ago when I was getting rid of fleas.” “We had this big blue saddle bench in our space, and she came over and asked if it was for sale. I told her it had just sold, and she asked if I had anything else like it. When I told her I had a warehouse in Arizona, her sister’s eyes lit up because she lived there.”
The person continued. “During that time, I was looking at her and thinking to myself, ‘Is this Diane Keaton?’ And she wrote her name and phone number on a postcard that I had, and it just said ‘Diane’ with the phone number. And she asked for my number. She was very nice… Then literally a week later, she called me and said she was on her way to the warehouse and wanted to know if I was going to get there.”
