Actress Diane Keaton appeared live on Tuesday’s Good Morning America and dropped the F-bomb while attempting to compliment GMA co-host Diane Sawyer’s looks. After gushing over how much better her life would be with “those lips,” the movie star blurted, “I’d like to have lips like that. Then I wouldn’t have worked on my fucking personality or my -- excuse me. My personality.”
Sawyer, who had been attempting to get the actress to talk about Mad Money, Keaton’s new film, appeared momentarily shocked and then started laughing. She retorted, “My mother is going to work on your personality with soap in your mouth, is what she’s going to do.”
Both the guest and host seemed to find the expletive humorous. However, there is a serious side. The exchange occurred early in the morning on network television. This is certainly a time when parents could have the television on while preparing their children for school. And while Sawyer closed the interview by saying, “This is Diane Keaton who will be answering to the censors,” one could say the same thing of ABC. Why, exactly, was the network not operating on a delay? And why did they not catch the profanity?
MRC President Brent Bozell has previously addressed network responsibility for celebrities who swear on air and the stations’ unwillingness to take strong action.
A transcript of the exchange, which occurred at 8:20am on January 15, follows:
DIANE KEATON: No, I'm right about you. You don't want to talk about this, but you know it's true.
DIANE SAWYER: You're very kind.
KEATON: Yeah, okay. Enough of that. But, it's true.
SAWYER: All right, I have to ask you about something--
KEATON: Those lips, I mean, I love them. I'd like to have lips like that. Then I wouldn't have worked on my f------ personality or my -- Excuse me. My personality. If I had lips like yours, I'd be better off.
SAWYER: Also a crime. Also a crime.
KEATON: My life would be better. I'd be married. Not with these thin, little skinny lips. What am I going to do?
SAWYER: I was going to say-- My mother is going to work on your personality with soap in your mouth, is what she's going to do.
KEATON: Soap in her mouth! I know-- Excuse me. I shouldn't have said anything like that.
Scott Whitlock is a media analyst at the Media Research Center. This piece is adapted from a Newsbusters blog.
