Diane Keaton, Robin Roberts headline women's conference

She loves Philadelphia.

"Come on, this city is gorgeous!"

She'd even like to buy some real estate here.

"Anyone have some ideas?"

But she wanted to know who that guy was standing atop City Hall.

"Billy Penn?" she asked incredulously. "What'd he do? Was he like poet laureate, or something, of Philadelphia?"

That was Diane Keaton, 68, one of a star-studded handful of keynote speakers Thursday at the 11th annual Pennsylvania Conference for Women, where more than 7,000 women and a few men attended the one-day lollapalooza-scale event.

The women came to explore topics including inclusive leadership, risk-taking, and creative marketing and branding, strategies for aging gracefully, minimizing stress, and closing the cross-gender communications gap - all through small workshops, one-on-one coaching, and keynote speakers, who included Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, former New York Times editor Jill Abramson, CBS News contributor Jane Pauley, Before I Die project founder Candy Chang, and of course, the hat-wearing Keaton.

Forever the loopy Annie Hall, protagonist of the 1977 Woody Allen movie that propelled her and her gender-bending fashion statement to star status, Keaton stayed true to that character yesterday - which, for many attendees, was a detriment.

Marla Curran of Swedesboro, who came with a contingent of 200 coworkers from GlaxoSmithKline, thought Keaton's remarks - the most candid of which came in an interview with 6ABC coanchor Monica Malpass after Keaton read excerpts from her latest book, Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty - just "didn't land." But she gave the star a pass. "She's very . . . artsy."

On the other hand, Curran said, the highlight of the day was listening to Linda Cliatt-Wayman, the dynamic principal at Strawberry Mansion High School, considered at one time among the country's 10 most dangerous schools.

In fact, Cliatt-Wayman's speech last year left Curran and her coworkers wondering, "What are we doing? We're not doing anything with our lives." So, this year, GlaxoSmithKline gave 10 Strawberry Mansion High School girls scholarships to attend the conference.

 Carolina Lobo of Narberth called Cliatt-Wayman "pretty powerful. Her authenticity and her soulful gratitude was quite moving," she said. Cliatt-Wayman left an assistant superintendent's job to run the high school after no one else wanted to take on the job. "She demonstrated that our calling can come at any age," Lobo said.

Amy Lessack of Blue Bell praised Abramson, one of the morning speakers: "I loved when she talked about being resilient personally and professionally. That you don't have to just climb the ladder up. You can go across and diagonally. You can find your passion in many different directions."

Again and again, the themes of empowerment and resilience emerged.

Roberts, also promoting a book, Everybody's Got Something, spoke candidly in an interview with friend and Good Morning America journalist Tory Johnson about everything from her partner, Amber, to the years she endured treatment for breast cancer and then later myelodysplastic syndrome.

She advocated standing up for yourself and fighting the fear that keeps many women from taking risks personally and professionally. "Reason will only take us so far," Roberts said. "Faith will take you anywhere."

Said Keaton, more bluntly, in answer to the question, "What does it take to be a leader?":

"Balls."

Other pearls: Make work play. Keep a journal. And see beauty in everything.

Many fans might be surprised to know that Keaton doesn't find herself beautiful. Having overcome a five-year bout with bulimia decades ago, Keaton, as she writes in her book, has long obsessed over her physical "disappointments," starting at age 11, when she looked in the bathroom mirror.

Keaton's current list of perceived shortcomings, a particular concern in her business, is long: dry skin, crooked nose, "Spock ears," thinning hair, drooping eyes, and "sagging butt."

In an interview earlier this week, Keaton, who spoke while driving along the Pacific coast outside Santa Barbara, Calif., continued the riff.

"What do you think about how you look now vs. 35 years ago? It's tough to deal with. You worry. You're concerned about your appearance and how to fix it," she said.

"But what are you going to do," she continued, "be sad all the time and regret everything? As you get older, life also becomes more mysterious, more magical."

Although unattainable standards of female beauty in popular culture torture women into their dotage, Keaton suggests that "our ideals of beauty change as we age.

"A life well-lived," she concludes in her book, "is the most beautiful thing of all."

vsmith@phillynews.com

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