“My mother wanted us to understand that
the tragedies of your life one day have the potential to be comic stories the
next.” – Nora Ephron
Best known for her romantic comedies, Nora
Ephron was an American journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, novelist,
producer, director, and blogger (I think that about covers every type of
writing, but of course she didn’t Tweet, so maybe not).
If ever there was a “family of writers,” it
would be the Ephron family. Born this
day in 1941, Ephron was the oldest of four girls who all became successful
writers, and both of her parents also were writers – so it truly may have been
in her genes. Her sisters Delia and Amy
are also screenwriters, and her sister Hallie is a journalist, book reviewer
and novelist who writes crime fiction.
She also married a writer – and a quite famous
one at that. She and Carl Bernstein of
the Washington Post (and Watergate
reporting fame) were married for a dozen years and had a son, Jacob, who also
grew up to be a writer. In fact, he is
now writing the screenplay for the upcoming HBO movie about his mother’s life,
tentatively called “Everything is Copy,” which is pretty much how Nora looked
at the world when she prepared to write.
Nora
Ephron
Successful in almost everything, she was
nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Writing for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless in Seattle. She
won numerous awards for When Harry Met
Sally, and if there had been an award for best original scene it definitely
would have been for the one where an older woman sitting in a restaurant
watching Sally tells the waitress “I’ll have what she’s having.”
If you haven’t seen it, take a look on You Tube. It will definitely make your day. As, of course, did most of the terrific
writing done by this American icon.
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