Just last week Nora Ephron’s memoir I Feel Bad About My Neck caught my eye as I passed by one of our bookshelves. I thought, I really need to read that again because I loved that book.
The legendary screenwriter died last night after a battle with leukemia. She was 71. If she had stopped after writing When Harry Met Sally she still would have given us enough to remember her for but her credits also include writing Silkwood, Sleepless in Seattle and more books including Heartburn, the account of her ultimately disastrous marriage to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein. She also directed Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, a couple of huge romantic comedies. And she did so at a time when few women were writing and directing major motion pictures.
When Harry Met Sally is beyond a classic. Nora Ephron was beyond talented. She probably would have blushed and looked at the ground if you called her a role model for women but she was, without intending to to do it. The world will be a little less funny without her.
I’m sadded by this as well. I wasn’t even aware she was ill… she kept that to herself until the end, didn’t she?
I think so because last night the New York Post just had an item that said she was gravely ill in hospital but they didn’t know the cause. I’d say that’s a darn good job of keeping it quiet. The Post knows everything or finds it out.