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52-453: Nora Ephron ( / ˈ ɛ f r ə n / EF -rən ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing romantic comedy films and received numerous accolades including a British Academy Film Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards , a Golden Globe Award , a Tony Award and three Writers Guild of America Awards . Ephron started her career writing

104-630: A Chicago-based radio talk show in an attempt to find his father a new partner. After hearing this call, Baltimore resident Annie Reed, played by Meg Ryan, becomes infatuated with Sam, and sets up a rendezvous for the two to meet in New York City. The film received positive reviews with Michael Wilmington of Los Angeles Times describing it as a "real charmer ... a romantic comedy about an ultimate long-distance relationship. Emphasize 'romantic.' Emphasize 'comedy.' It delivers both", adding that it "almost makes us forget our modern-day cynicism". The film

156-559: A high school student, Ephron dreamed of going to New York City to become another Dorothy Parker , an American poet, writer, satirist, and critic. Ephron has cited her high school journalism teacher, Charles Simms, as the inspiration for her pursuit of a career in journalism. She graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1958, and from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1962 with a degree in political science. After graduating from Wellesley, Ephron worked briefly as an intern in

208-444: A partner or because of social pressures. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are attracted to each other and that they would be a good love match. The characters often split or seek time apart in order to sort out their emotions or deal with external obstacles to being together, which they eventually overcome. While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them usually realizes that they love

260-809: A sense of awkwardness between the two potential partners by depicting an initial clash of personalities or beliefs, an embarrassing situation, or by introducing a comical misunderstanding or mistaken identity situation. Sometimes, the term is used without a hyphen (a "meet cute"), or as a verb ("to meet cute"). Roger Ebert describes the "concept of a Meet Cute" as "when boy meets girl in a cute way." As an example, he cites "The Meet Cute in Lost and Found [which] has Jackson and Segal running their cars into each other in Switzerland. Once recovered, they Meet Cute again when they run into each other while on skis. Eventually, they fall in love." In many romantic comedies,

312-498: A substantial sum of money from a relative. In a conversation released by Criterion Channel between Lena Dunham , and Ephron, she stated "That movie I made completely for Woody Allen ." She later stated in the conversation that he saw it and liked it. In 1993, Ephron directed and wrote the script for the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle . The film stars Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin, a recently widowed father whose son calls into

364-409: Is a journalist, book reviewer, and novelist who writes crime fiction. Ephron's parents based the ingenue character in the play and film version of Take Her, She's Mine on the 22-year-old Nora and her letters from college; Sandra Dee played the character based on Nora in the film version, with James Stewart portraying her father. Both her parents became alcoholics during their declining years. As

416-459: Is a pregnant food writer who learns about her husband's affair. In 1986, Ephron wrote the script for the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... . Released in 1989, the film was directed by Rob Reiner , and starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan . The film depicted the decade-long friendship between Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) as they navigate their own romantic relationships. Ephron claimed that she wrote this screenplay with Reiner in mind as

468-439: Is based on Julie Powell 's blog and memoir of the same title. The film is about Julia Child , the famous American chef played by Meryl Streep, and Julie Powell, a New Yorker attempting to cook her way through Child's cookbook, played by Amy Adams . As Powell blogs her experience, the film flashes back to the story of Child's first stages of her career as she trains in a French culinary school. The film received positive reviews and

520-536: Is closer to tragicomedy ." It was not until the development of the literary tradition of romantic love in the western European medieval period, though, that "romance" came to refer to "romantic love" situations. They were previously referred to as the heroic adventures of medieval Romance . Those adventures traditionally focused on a knight's feats on behalf of a lady, so the modern themes of love were quickly woven into them, as in Chrétien de Troyes 's Lancelot,

572-415: Is that two characters meet , part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately, realize their love for one another and reunite. Sometimes the two leads meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes they are hesitant to become romantically involved because they believe they do not like each other. This could be because one of the characters already has

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624-428: Is then threatened by Fox Books, a Barnes & Noble -esque book selling chain, which opens near her shop. Fox Books is run by Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks. Joe and Kathleen navigate a tumultuous business rivalry, while unknowingly forming an intimate connection with each other via email. Ephron's play Imaginary Friends (2002) explores the rivalry between writers Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy . She co-authored

676-583: The Post ; Betty Friedan , whom she chastised for pursuing a feud with Gloria Steinem ; and her alma mater Wellesley, which she said had turned out "a generation of docile and unadventurous women". A 1968 send-up of Women's Wear Daily that she wrote for Cosmopolitan resulted in threats of a lawsuit from WWD. Ephron rewrote a script for All the President's Men in the mid-1970s, along with her then husband, investigative journalist Carl Bernstein . While

728-469: The White House of President John F. Kennedy . She also applied to be a writer at Newsweek . After she was told they did not hire women writers, she accepted a position as a mail girl. After eventually quitting Newsweek because she was not allowed to write, Ephron participated in a class action lawsuit against the magazine for sexual discrimination, described in the book The Good Girls Revolt: How

780-518: The film ends on a happy note . Even though it is implied that they live happily ever after, it does not always state what that happy ending will be. The couple does not necessarily get married for it to be a "happily ever after". The conclusion of a romantic comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in the protagonists' lives, even if they physically separate in the end (e.g., Shakespeare in Love , Roman Holiday ). Most of

832-531: The Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1984 for Silkwood . Ephron's novel Heartburn was published in 1983. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of her marriage with Carl Bernstein. The film adaptation was released in 1986, directed by Mike Nichols starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson . Ephron adapted her own novel into the screenplay for the film. In the film, Ephron's fictionalized portrayal of herself, played by Streep,

884-556: The Knight of the Cart . The contemporary romantic comedy genre was shaped by 18th-century Restoration comedy and 19th-century romantic melodrama . Restoration comedies were typically comedies of manners that relied on knowledge of the complex social rules of high society, particularly related to navigating the marriage-market, an inherent feature of the plot in many of these plays, such as William Wycherley 's The Country Wife . While

936-639: The Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich, and both the lawsuit and Ephron's role were fictionalized in a 2016 Amazon series by the similar main title Good Girls Revolt . After a satire in Monocle she wrote lampooning the New York Post caught the editor's eye, Ephron accepted a job at the Post , where she worked as a reporter for five years. In 1966, she broke

988-442: The Workplace is a book of nonfiction by Lynn Povich . The book, published in 2012, is based on the lawsuit female employees of Newsweek brought against their employer. The book received mostly positive reviews. The New York Times said, "If ever a book could remind women to keep their white gloves off and to keep fighting the good fight, this is the one." The Philadelphia Inquirer review said, "With vivid recollections of

1040-553: The biographical film Julie & Julia (2009). Ephron's first produced play, Imaginary Friends (2002), was honored as one of the ten best plays of the 2002–03 New York theatre season. She also co-authored the Drama Desk Award –winning theatrical production Love, Loss, and What I Wore . In 2013, Ephron received a posthumous Tony Award nomination for Best Play for Lucky Guy . She also wrote columns for Esquire , Cosmopolitan , and The New Yorker . Ephron

1092-628: The book, Ephron wrote of a fictional husband who was "capable of having sex with a Venetian blind". She also wrote that the character Thelma (based on Margaret Jay) looked like a giraffe with "big feet". Bernstein threatened to sue over the book and film but never did. Ephron was married for 25 years to screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi from 1987 until her death in 2012. The couple lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles and in New York City. Ephron's friend Richard Cohen said of her, "She

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1144-480: The character of Harry, and herself as the character of Sally. The film has become iconic in the romantic comedy genre, most notably for the scene in which Sally pretends to have an orgasm in the middle of Katz's Deli during lunch. Ephron said she wrote the part of Sally simulating an orgasm into the script per Ryan's suggestions. Additionally, the comment "I'll have what she's having" said by a deli patron (played by Rob Reiner's real-life mother Estelle Reiner ) watching

1196-717: The decades. We can see this through the screwball comedy in response to the censorship of the Hays Code in the 1920s–1930s, the career woman comedy (such as George Stevens' Woman of the Year , starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy ) post-WWII, and the sex comedy made popular by Rock Hudson and Doris Day in the 1950s–1960s. Over the years, romantic comedies have slowly been becoming more popular to both men and women. They have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory, and to explore more complex topics. These films still follow

1248-468: The fact that these films are still romantic comedies. One of the conventions of romantic comedy films is the entertainment factor in a contrived encounter of two potential romantic partners in unusual or comic circumstances, which film critics such as Roger Ebert or the Associated Press's Christy Lemire have called a " meet-cute " situation. During a "meet-cute", scriptwriters often create

1300-544: The film as being "charming...quirky...[and] a Christmas stocking stuffer". In 1998, Nora Ephron directed the film You've Got Mail , which she co-wrote with her sister Delia Ephron. The story is a loose adaptation of the Ernst Lubitsch film from 1940 The Shop Around the Corner . You've Got Mail stars Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly, an owner of a small, independent children's bookstore in New York City. Her quiet life

1352-436: The follies and misunderstandings of young lovers, in a light‐hearted and happily concluded manner which usually avoids serious satire". This reference states that the "best‐known examples are Shakespeare's comedies of the late 1590s, A Midsummer Night's Dream , Twelfth Night , and As You Like It being the most purely romantic, while Much Ado About Nothing approaches the comedy of manners and The Merchant of Venice

1404-542: The former associate director of the FBI. After Ephron's marriage with Bernstein ended, Ephron revealed Deep Throat's identity to her son Jacob and anyone else who asked. She once said, "I would give speeches to 500 people and someone would say, 'Do you know who Deep Throat is?' And I would say, 'It's Mark Felt.'" Classmates of Jacob at the Dalton School and Vassar College recall him revealing to numerous people that Felt

1456-735: The gender role that society has imposed upon them, as seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall , in which the male protagonist is especially in touch with his emotions. It can also be seen in Made of Honor , in which the female bridesmaids are shown in a negative and somewhat masculine light in order to advance the likability of the male lead. Other remakes of romantic comedies involve similar elements, but they explore more adult themes such as marriage, responsibility, or even disability. Two films by Judd Apatow , This Is 40 and Knocked Up , deal with these issues. This Is 40 chronicles

1508-1571: The knowledge that she was ill would have impeded her career. On June 26, 2012, Ephron died at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan from pneumonia, as a complication of leukemia, at the age of 71. Ephron's memorial service, called A Gathering for Nora , was held at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. The invitation-only event was attended by actors Alan Alda , Lauren Bacall , Christine Baranski , Annette Bening , Candice Bergen , Matthew Broderick , Sally Field , Jon Hamm , Tom Hanks , Joel Grey , Nicole Kidman , Shirley MacLaine , Bette Midler , Meg Ryan , Meryl Streep , comedians Joy Behar , Billy Crystal , Larry David , Steve Martin , Rosie O'Donnell , Martin Short , directors Woody Allen , James L. Brooks , Stanley Donen , Ron Howard , Elaine May , Mike Nichols , Rob Reiner , Martin Scorsese , Steven Spielberg , singer Paul Simon , Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter , activist Larry Kramer , Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels , columnist Frank Rich , fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg , talk show host Regis Philbin , playwright Tony Kushner , New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , Senator Al Franken , and journalists Carl Bernstein , Ben Bradlee , Tom Brokaw , Gayle King , Charlie Rose , Diane Sawyer , and Barbara Walters , among others. At that year's Karlovy Vary Film Festival ,

1560-505: The lifetime achievement award honorees Helen Mirren and Susan Sarandon paid tribute to Ephron during their acceptance speeches. Lena Dunham 's memoir Not That Kind of Girl (2014) and Steven Spielberg 's film The Post (2017) are both dedicated to Ephron. The Nora Ephron Prize is a $ 25,000 award by the Tribeca Film Festival for a female writer or filmmaker "with a distinctive voice". The first Nora Ephron Prize

1612-567: The melodramas of the Romantic period had little to do with comedy, they were hybrids incorporating elements of domestic and sentimental tragedies, pantomime "with an emphasis on gesture, on the body, and the thrill of the chase," and other genres of expression such as songs and folk tales. In the 20th century, as Hollywood grew, the romantic comedy in America mirrored other aspects of society in its rapid changes, developing many sub-genres through

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1664-429: The mid-life crisis of a couple entering their 40s, and Knocked Up addresses unintended pregnancy and the ensuing assuming of responsibility. Silver Linings Playbook deals with mental illness and the courage to start a new relationship. All of these go against the stereotype of what romantic comedy has become as a genre. Yet, the genre of romantic comedy is simply a structure, and all of these elements do not negate

1716-541: The news in the Post that Bob Dylan had married Sara Lownds in a private ceremony. After becoming a successful writer, she wrote a column on women's issues for Esquire . In this position, Ephron made a name for herself by writing " A Few Words About Breasts ", a humorous essay about body image that "established her as the enfant terrible of the New Journalism". While at Esquire , she took on subjects as wide-ranging as Dorothy Schiff , her former boss and owner of

1768-436: The other person. Then, one character makes some extravagant effort (sometimes called a grand gesture ) to find the other character and declare their love. However, this is not always the case; sometimes, there is a coincidental encounter where the two characters meet again. Alternatively, one character plans a romantic gesture to show that they still care. Then, with some comic friction, they declare their love for each other, and

1820-528: The other zombies and even starts to cure them. With the zombie cure, the two main characters can now be together since they do not have a barrier between them anymore. Another strange set of circumstances is in Zack and Miri Make a Porno where the two protagonists are building a relationship while trying to make a pornographic film together. Both these films take the typical story arc and then add strange circumstances to add originality. Other romantic comedies flip

1872-618: The play Love, Loss, and What I Wore (based on the book by Ilene Beckerman ) with her sister Delia, and it has played to sold-out audiences in Canada, New York City and Los Angeles. In 2007, Ephron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member George Lucas . Ephron directed and co-wrote the screenplay for her final film Julie & Julia (2009). The film

1924-420: The potential couple comprises polar opposites, two people of different temperaments, situations, social statuses, or all three ( It Happened One Night ), who would not meet or talk under normal circumstances, and the meet cute's contrived situation provides the opportunity for these two people to meet. The Good Girls Revolt The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed

1976-550: The scene unfold nearby, was an idea from Billy Crystal. Ephron's script was nominated for the 1990 Oscar in Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Ephron's directorial debut was the film This Is My Life (1992). Ephron and her sister Delia Ephron wrote the script based on Meg Wolitzer 's novel This is Your Life. The film is about a woman who decides to pursue a career in stand-up comedy after inheriting

2028-614: The screenplays for Silkwood (1983), Heartburn (1986), and When Harry Met Sally... (1989), the last of which earned the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay , and was ranked by the Writers Guild of America as the 40th greatest screenplay of all-time. She made her directorial film debut with comedy-drama This Is My Life (1992) followed by the romantic comedies Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Michael (1996), You've Got Mail (1998), Bewitched (2005), and

2080-517: The script was not used, it was seen by someone who offered Ephron her first screenwriting job, for a television movie, which began her screenwriting career. In 1983, Ephron co-scripted the film Silkwood with Alice Arlen . The film, directed by Mike Nichols , starred Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood , a whistleblower at the Kerr McGee Cimarron nuclear facility who dies under suspicious circumstances. Ephron and Arlen were nominated for

2132-469: The standard conventions of the romantic comedy genre. In films like 500 Days of Summer , the two main interests do not end up together, leaving the protagonist somewhat distraught. Other films, like Adam, have the two main interests end up separated but still content and pursuing other goals and love interests. Some romantic comedies use reversal of gender roles to add comedic effect. These films contain characters who possess qualities that diverge from

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2184-401: The time the ending gives the audience a sense that if it is true love, it will always prevail, no matter what the two characters have to overcome. Comedies, rooted in the fertility rites and satyr plays of ancient Greece , have often incorporated sexual or social elements. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defines romantic comedy as "a general term for comedies that deal mainly with

2236-468: The typical plot of "a light and humorous movie, play, etc., whose central plot is a happy love story" but with more complexity. Some romantic comedies have adopted special circumstances for the main characters, as in Warm Bodies where the protagonist is a zombie who falls in love with a human girl after eating her boyfriend. The effect of their love towards each other is that it starts spreading to

2288-540: Was Deep Throat. This revelation attracted little media attention despite Deep Throat's identity being publicly unknown. Ephron said, "No one, apart from my sons, believed me." Ephron was invited by Arianna Huffington to write about the experience in The Huffington Post , for which Ephron was a regular blogger and part-time editor. In 2006, Ephron was diagnosed with myelodysplasia . She chose not to disclose her diagnosis to friends or colleagues, fearing that

2340-554: Was a box office success becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1993 . Ephron was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay losing to Jane Campion for The Piano (1993). In 1994, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award . That same year, the dark Christmas comedy Mixed Nuts (1994) which starred Steve Martin , Madeline Kahn , Rita Wilson , Rob Reiner and Adam Sandler . The film

2392-664: Was a commercial success. Streep received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for her performance with nominations for the Academy Award , BAFTA Award , and Screen Actors Guild Award . Ephron received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay . Ephron was married three times. Her first marriage to writer Dan Greenburg ended in divorce after nine years. In 1976, she married journalist Carl Bernstein with whom she had two sons. In 1979, Ephron

2444-492: Was a reporter for The New York Times . For many years, Ephron was one of the very few people who knew the identity of Deep Throat , the anonymous informer for articles written by her ex-husband Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward uncovering the Watergate scandal . Ephron read Bernstein's notes, which referred to Deep Throat as "MF"; Bernstein said it stood for "My Friend", but Ephron correctly guessed it stood for Mark Felt ,

2496-520: Was awarded in 2013 to Meera Menon for her film Farah Goes Bang . Feature films As an actress, Nora Ephron appeared in two films, both made by her friend Woody Allen : she is credited as being a wedding guest in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), and as a Dinner Party Guest in Husbands and Wives (1992). ——————— Other Awards Romantic comedy The basic plot of a romantic comedy

2548-465: Was based on the French comedy Le Père Noël est une ordure (1979). She co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Delia Ephron . The film received mixed reviews and was a box office flop. She then directed the comedy fantasy film Michael (1996) starring John Travolta , Andie MacDowell and William Hurt . The film received mixed reviews but was a box office success. David Ansen of Newsweek praised

2600-571: Was born in New York City on May 19, 1941, to a Jewish family. She was the eldest of four daughters, and grew up in Beverly Hills, California . Her parents, Phoebe (née Wolkind) and Henry Ephron , were both East Coast-born playwrights and screenwriters. Her parents named her Nora after the protagonist in the play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen . Nora's younger sisters, Delia and Amy , are also writers. Her sister Hallie Ephron

2652-592: Was pregnant with their second son when she discovered Bernstein's affair with their mutual friend, British journalist Margaret Jay , the daughter of former British prime minister James Callaghan , who was at the time married to the British ambassador to the United States Peter Jay . Ephron was inspired by the affair to write the novel Heartburn (1983), which was then made into a 1986 Mike Nichols film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. In

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2704-400: Was very Jewish, culturally and emotionally. She identified fully as a Jewish woman." However, Ephron was not religious. "You can never have too much butter – that is my belief. If I have a religion, that's it", she quipped in an NPR interview about her 2009 movie Julie & Julia . Ephron's son, Jacob Bernstein, directed an HBO movie on her life titled Everything Is Copy . As of 2021, he

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