PicoBlog

Hello,

Something a little different today… a new obsession to tell you about.

Last year, I declared myself to be in my Katherine Center Era upon discovering the author’s back catalog of closed-door romances filled with strong, quirky heroines. After reading my first (THE BODYGUARD), I commented that these books felt like the kind of 90’s romcom Meg Ryan would star in.

So, it’s ironic (poetic?) that I have officially entered my Nora Ephron Era and am in full obsession mode with the writer/director who created those 90’s romcoms Meg Ryan actually did star in.

Here’s how it happened: I’m writing a novel about an actress who aspires to be a modern-day Julia Roberts. As part of my research, I’ve been guzzling biographies of actresses and trying to suffuse my brain with some of the Hollywood lore my main character might have picked up over her career. This led me to I’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING: HOW NORA EPHRON’S THREE ICONIC FILMS SAVED THE ROMANTIC COMEDY by

As a self-appointed romcom aficionado, you might be wondering why my Nora Ephron Era is coming so late, almost twelve years after her death. Same. I’m disappointed in myself. But to be fair, her first romcom, When Harry Met Sally, came out in 1989 when I was 3 years old. Sleepless in Seattle arrived in 1993; I was younger than the movie’s child star. While I’ve seen both, I wasn’t attuned to any cultural fanfare around their releases and watched with little care about who created them. Of Nora’s three romcoms, I have the strongest affinity for You’ve Got Mail.

Instead, I’ve focused my female romcom writer/director crush energy on Nancy Meyers, whose filmography more neatly lines up with my peak teenage movie-going years. As one Instagram follower astutely pointed out the other day, in many ways Nancy is California’s answer in voice and aesthetic to the very New York-y Nora. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not casting Nancy aside, merely adding a new prayer candle to the altar of greats.

So, what is it about Nora?

Well, first, I love that Nora had her first commercial film smash (When Harry Met Sally) at 50. As someone who’s taken a circuitous career path and gets bored and finds a new “thing” every few years, I find stories about late-bloomers and fresh starts and not-out-of-the-gate successes so inspiring. A reminder that—if we’re lucky—there’s so much more time to try things, to improve, to find one’s life purpose. There’s an Instagram graphic about Miuccia Prada that circulates every few years that I save without fail every time I see it.

Need a few more? Julia Child started her cooking show at 51. Taylor Jenkins Reid had four books before THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO. Emily Henry had four before BEACH READ, too. Nora’s first attempt at writing a screenplay in her thirties, an adaptation of her then-husband Carl Bernstein’s book ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN was soundly rejected. Her adaptation of her own novel HEARTBURN, a roman à clef about her divorce from Bernstein, was critically panned. There’s something inspiring in that, too, though, don’t you think? Her first screenwriting break via HEARTBURN came out of a low moment in her life (you never know what’s on the other side of failure!).

It's also Nora’s brash voice, which viewed a decade-plus later, feels increasingly rare in a time when everything on the internet is caveated to the high heavens (“This is just my personal experience!” I’m tempted to scream every time I share even the mildest of hot takes). And, unlike Nancy, in addition to Nora’s screenwork, we have dozens (hundreds?) of essays written in Nora’s own voice, explaining her own experience. Nora on Nora, if you will. As I type this, THE MOST OF NORA EPHRON, an anthology of her essays, is on its way to me.

There’s also something fascinating about the social aspects of Nora’s life. I’m delighted by her obsession with her longtime home at the Upper West Side’s Apthorp building (correctly or not, I’m picturing The Arconia from Only Murders In The Building), where she frequently entertained famous friends. In fact, at various points some of them (Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Rosie O’Donnell, her sister and screenwriting partner Delia) lived there, too. In Carlson’s book, she relays an anecdote from actor Greg Kinnear about Nora inviting him to dinner. He raved about the ham. In an essay by Lena Dunham, who befriended Nora toward the end of her life, she tells of a perfectly-cooked Thanksgiving turkey.

In a documentary produced and directed by Nora’s son Jacob after her death (Everything is Copy, streaming on MAX), her first husband Dan Greenberg tells a story about Nora going up to random celebrities she did not know and asking, “If I invited you to dinner at my house, would you come?” In his account, he cannot recall anyone ever saying no. I find this both charming and highly aspirational.

Given that Nora died in 2012 of leukemia, I find myself feeling somewhat robbed of being able to follow Nora in her own lifetime, so I took to Instagram story to ask if there is a present-day equivalent. The New York Times thinks it is Dolly Alderton. Other frequent answers included Mindy Kaling, Issa Rae, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Greta Gerwig. A few even suggested Taylor Swift, albeit via a different medium. An interesting one-off posited Taffy Brodesser-Akner (author and screenwriter of FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE), who inhabits both Nora’s New Yorkiness and her Jewish identity. I’m endlessly fascinated by this question of the new-Nora, so if you have feelings on any of these contenders or new names to add, please feel free to leave them in the comments!

If you need me, I’ll be diving into Nora’s essays and deepening the obsession.

Until next time,

Becca

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