In 2021, Hollywood icon Diane Keaton paid Deacon Phillippe a pretty incredible compliment by mistaking him for “Titanic” heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio. She was narrating an Instagram tribute to “male beauty” that opened with a black-and-white closeup of Phillippe’s face. “Talk about beauty, Leonardo DiCaprio,” Keaton gushed. “Give me a break. I knew him when he was a kid.” While Deacon did look remarkably like DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon immediately recognized her son’s smize and set Keaton straight. “Diane, the first one is my son!” she wrote, punctuating her comment with a heart-eye emoji. Keaton replied with a trio of flushed-face emoji.
The “Annie Hall” star later addressed her error on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” After admiring the photo of Phillippe again, she said, “Whoops! But look at him. I mean, that’s gorgeous … How old is he now?” Ellen DeGeneres quipped, “Too young for you.”
To answer Keaton’s question, he turned 18 years old in 2021. On his birthday, Ryan Phillippe posted some Instagram pics that would help fans better decide which parent Deacon takes after the most. He was seated between Witherspoon and Ryan, who told E! News that he thinks Deacon looks more like his mother than his father. In her birthday tribute, Witherspoon wrote, “One day he was trading Pokémon cards, singing Bruno Mars songs, and playing American Ninja Warrior in the backyard. The next day, he is taller than me, cooking the family steaks on the grill.”
