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Yes—but the reported moment was a comic near-departure, not an angry walkout. Diane Keaton got up to leave near the end of her April 30, 2012 appearance on The Colbert Report without realizing the cameras were still rolling, according to the Los Angeles Times. The interview had become playfully chaotic as Stephen Colbert tried to discuss her memoir, Then Again.
Why Diane Keaton appeared on The Colbert Report
Keaton visited Colbert’s Comedy Central program to promote the paperback release of Then Again, her memoir. The appearance aired on April 30, 2012, as later recounted by LateNighter. It was an interview on The Colbert Report, not Colbert’s later CBS program.
How the interview went off-script
Keaton opened by saying she would not vote for Colbert for president, then turned her attention to his backside and a hug she said he had given her backstage. The Los Angeles Times described Colbert as baffled and reported that Keaton threatened to bring him up on charges.
Colbert tried to steer the conversation toward the memoir and Keaton’s relationship with her late mother. Keaton deflected the question, calling him a “sexual pervert,” as quoted in the contemporaneous Los Angeles Times account. When Colbert joked that he needed her to say something about the book before he could encourage viewers to buy it, the paper reported that she responded with laughter.
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Did Diane Keaton actually walk off?
Near the segment’s end, Keaton asked whether she would make a good talk-show sidekick. She then got up to leave without realizing the cameras were still rolling, according to the Los Angeles Times. That is the basis for saying she almost walked off: the account describes a comic exit at the end of the segment, not an angry storm-out or an interview halted in protest.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How Colbert later remembered the interview
In October 2025, Colbert re-aired the interview as a tribute to Keaton. LateNighter reported that he called it “one of my favorite interviews I ever had the privilege of doing” and described the attempt to discuss her memoir as “so charmingly chaotic.” TheWrap also reported that Keaton’s concrete book detail in the original exchange was that the paperback would be in stores the following day.
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- Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson
The later fondness fits the encounter’s reported tone: Colbert pursued the book conversation, while Keaton repeatedly diverted it into teasing and jokes. The available accounts support a memorable, unruly interview—not a serious on-air dispute.
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- Diane's only documentary mixes clips of how Hollywood has depicted Heaven with interviews focusing on what Heaven might be really like.
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