Nora Ephron

After graduating from Wellesley, Ephron worked briefly as an intern in the White House of President John F. Kennedy.[14] 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.[15]

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 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.[16]

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.[12] In 1966, she broke the news in the Post that Bob Dylan had married Sara Lownds in a private ceremony.[17] After becoming a successful writer, she wrote a column on women's issues for Esquire.[10] 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".[18] While at Esquire, she took on subjects as wide-ranging as Dorothy Schiff, her former boss and owner of 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".[12] A 1968 send-up of Women's Wear Daily that she wrote for Cosmopolitan resulted in threats of a lawsuit from WWD.[12]

Ephron rewrote a script for All the President's Men in the mid-1970s, along with her then husband, investigative journalist Carl Bernstein. While the script was not used, it was seen by someone who offered Ephron her first screenwriting job, for a television movie,[12] which began her screenwriting career.[19]

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.[20] Ephron and Arlen were nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1984 for Silkwood.[21]

Ephron's novel Heartburn was published in 1983.[11] The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of her marriage with Carl Bernstein.[11] 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.[11] In the film, Ephron's fictionalized portrayal of herself, played by Streep, is a pregnant food writer when she 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 relationship 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 the character of Harry, and herself as the character of Sally.[11] 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 the scene unfold nearby, was an idea from Billy Crystal.[22] Ephron's script was nominated for the 1990 Oscar in Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.[22]

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.[11] The film is about a woman who decides to pursue a career in stand-up comedy after inheriting a substantial sum of money from a relative.[11] 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.[23]

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 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, is 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".[24] The film was a box office success becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1993. Ephron received a 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.[25] 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 was based off 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 the film as being "charming...quirky...[and] a Christmas stocking stuffer".[26]

In 1998, Ephron released the film You've Got Mail, which she wrote the script for, with her sister Delia Ephron, and directed. The story is a loose adaptation of the Ernst Lubitsch film from 1940 The Shop Around the Corner.[11] 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 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 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.[27][28][29] In 2007, Ephron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member George Lucas.[30][31]

Ephron directed and co-wrote the screenplay for her final film Julie & Julia (2009).[11] The film 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 was a commercial success.[11] 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.