Diane Keaton was already an Oscar-winning actress and comedy powerhouse when she arrived at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel to meet a director with just one indie film under his belt.

“Diane Keaton walks in with a bowler hat,” writer-director Thomas Bezucha said, recalling how stunned he was that the star was coming for lunch with him. But Keaton had read his script for “ The Family Stone ,” then making the rounds under the working title “F**cking Hate Her,” and she was intrigued.

“She took a real leap of faith,” he said. “You feel lucky when you see a shooting star, and I feel like I got hit by a comet.”

Keaton’s signing on opened the floodgates to a cast that has helped “The Family Stone” become a Christmas classic, a sometimes cringey , other times cozy , often rewa

See Full Page