EXCLUSIVE: Last week, we scooped that Woody Allen would not attend the 71st annual Golden Globe Awards on January 12 where he will be the recipient of the 2014 Cecil B. DeMille Award. Now we can reveal that his longtime friend and muse Diane Keaton will accept the award on his behalf. I have learned that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to honor Allen with the knowledge that the Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker would not attend. Keaton was then approached about receiving the award on his behalf. Keaton and Allen met in 1968 when she auditioned and was cast in his Broadway play, Play It Again, Sam. They were a couple for 5 years and are still very good friends today. Keaton appeared in eight Allen films spanning two decades, winning an Oscar and Golden Globe for 1976’s Annie Hall.

Allen is notorious about shunning awards shows. He wasn’t present to receive any of his four Oscars out of 23 nominations and has shied away from the Golden Globes despite 13 nominations and two wins. In fact, the only awards show he ever attended was the 2002 Academy Awards as an ambassador of New York, thanking Hollywood for its support of his beloved city post-9/11. “There is no one more worthy of this award than Woody Allen,” HFPA President Theo Kingma said in September when announcing Allen as the recipient. “His contributions to filmmaking have been phenomenal, and he truly is an international treasure.”