Rachel McAdams, left, Diane Keaton and Sarah Jessica Parker wipe out during a scene in The Family Stone.

PASADENA, Calif. - If the thought of Annie Hall turning 60 makes you groan with age, imagine how Diane Keaton reacts when the subject of her forthcoming birthday is broached by a journalist who uses the term "milestone" to describe the event.

Or actually don't.

Because Keaton, who portrayed the object of Woody Allen's affections in that 1977 romantic comedy, appears nonplussed about the prospect of entering her seventh decade on this planet.

In fact, she insists since she turned 30, each birthday has only improved with time.

"At 30, I remember it was devastating. I was forgotten by my loved ones and completely collapsed," says the actress who, it should be noted, keeps tongue firmly planted in cheek during roundtable interviews to promote her new dramedy, The Family Stone.

"Ever since that 30th birthday, it's been getting easier ... One thing, though, is that in turning 60, I now realize how completely consumed by time I am. Time is so darn precious. I want to do every single possible thing I can."

She describes life now as "damn exciting ... I really feel like it just makes you savour life more and more, as you go."

As for specifically what she'll be doing on her B-day in January, Keaton doesn't know yet. "I'm terrified, actually, I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll go to Monument Valley and go see the west," says Keaton, clad in her signature hat and gloves.

One thing she won't be doing is looking for work. Despite the fact Hollywood, land of Botox and skinscaping, rarely lets its rich and famous residents age gracefully, Keaton, whose career spans The Godfather to Something's Gotta Give, has several projects lined up for next year. None, perplexingly though, involve Allen, who last cast Keaton in Manhattan Murder Mystery nearly a decade ago. "It's shocking," she says, again with a teasing lilt to her voice.

"I feel a little upset about that. Maybe (he'll call me) for my birthday."

Starting tomorrow, she anchors the aforementioned The Family Stone, an ensemble comedy about a liberal family whose Christmas is spoiled by the arrival of their eldest son's conservative, uptight girlfriend, Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker).

Despite a screenplay that attracted such stars as Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson, Craig T. Nelson and Claire Danes, the movie almost didn't materialize. Several false starts, in fact, had plagued the production until Keaton came aboard to portray the Stone clan's matriarch.

"You know how long this movie's been around? Forever. They couldn't quite get it on. Then when I signed on, they gathered everybody because they pretended they had a movie and they didn't. My belief about that whole thing is that when people give you a script and say, 'So-and-so's attached' it's to make you think 'I better read it.' That's all it gets you -- a reading.

"But this script was fantastic and frankly, I never thought the movie was going to get on. I've been down that road a few times."

Naturally, while discussing The Family Stone, what with its idyllic family setting, conversation gravitates to Keaton's own family -- and their plans for the holidays.

"My father was consumed by the beach. Every week we'd drive out to the beach and his dream in life was to have a house on the beach. And eventually he did and he died so now every year we go to that house," she says.

"My mother's still alive so we all go and hang at the beach. Our way of celebrating Christmas is being there."

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