Diane Warren: Cat Crusader
Diane Warren has written power ballads for everyone from Cher to Celine, but her real passion project might just be the four-legged residents of her Malibu sanctuary. The 68-year-old songwriting legend — 16-time Oscar nominee, Van Nuys native and proud cat person — has built her career atop big feelings, so it tracks that she’s surrounded her life with creatures who give them right back (for the most part).
At her Realsongs headquarters on Cahuenga Boulevard, where she works daily, animals are more than welcome — they’re often the stars. One recent afternoon, Warren greets THR wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with a tiger’s face. A blush-pink mural across a brick wall reads “Pussy Power.” Her Cornish Rex cat, Rabbit, is sprawled out on the floor, unconcerned by the two birds (Chicken and Charlie) chirping from an adjacent office or a colleague’s gray-haired cat next door, who seems to be causing a stir.
“I just love cats because they are more aloof while dogs are needy,” Warren offers — then immediately corrects herself. “Meanwhile, I have the neediest cat in the world.”
That kind of contradiction doesn’t faze her. In fact, she’s built her life around it. In 2017, she bought a 7-acre estate in Malibu to fulfill a lifelong dream of creating her own animal sanctuary. Named the Mousebutt Rescue Ranch (in honor of her late cat Mouse and a parrot named Buttwings), the property is now home to seven donkeys, two mini-donkeys, five horses, two mini-horses, 15 goats, four pigs, six dogs, 15 chickens, two turkeys and roughly two dozen mostly elderly cats saved from euthanasia lists; there are seven staffers who care for the menagerie.
“For years, I had been trying to find the right place, and then when I saw this property, it was like, ‘Oh my God, this is exactly what I need,’ ” she says. “It’s great to know that I have a place I can give animals a forever home where they can live out their lives.”
For a while, she’d spend Sunday afternoons visiting the ranch after popping over from her nearby beach house — a property she’d owned for three decades, until it was destroyed in the Palisades Fire. “It’s an ashtray now and it was such a beautiful place,” she says. “Thank God, though, the ranch is fine. If I had to lose a place, I’m glad the ranch is still there.”
Back at Realsongs, Warren has cultivated what she proudly calls “the most animal-friendly place in town.” A longtime vegan, she doesn’t allow any meat-based takeout inside the building. “Artists will ask if they can bring their cat or their dog to work with them and I’m like, ‘Fuck yeah!’ ” she says. “I’d rather have the animals here than the people.”
Through her namesake foundation, she also supports animal causes nationwide — extending the same kind of big-hearted longevity she’s given to the music industry, just with a few more hooves, beaks and paws.
This story appeared in the Oct. 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
