Nora Ephron's last days

A wonderful article by her son about the last years and months of Ephron's life.

http%3A//www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/magazine/nora-ephrons-final-act.html



• I can just not hear enough about this major filmmaker and thinker.

• Ephron really got elevated to sainthood. Collective amnesia surrounds her Bewitched film, and the Amy Adams scenes of Julie and Julia, and countless other things.

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• Julie and Julia would have been a great movie if it was all about Julia Child. The scenes with Amy Adams and her irritating character ground the movie to a halt.

• She was still a snob and a bitch, loathed by many.

• Weird how she only told a couple people she was dying. I think many of her acquaintances were a bit hurt.

• Wow, her son is taking a break from writing condescending stories about damaged gay men! Too bad his subject this time around is a major BITCH.

• I already love this thread.

• She had such a sweet public image, but apparently in private she was awful and very, very snobby. Didn't like "the little people" at all. I know a woman who worked on one of Ephron's films and this woman said Ephron was a complete horror. Just goes to show you how some people in Hollywood are nothing but image and the reality is something else entirely. Marlo Thomas also comes to mind.

• R4 - count me in on that. Her latest two memoirs made her out to have a MAJOR entitlement complex!

• I believe that she was a horrible snob because she was supposedly friends with Sally Quinn

• Sally Quinn wrote an essay on Ephron when she died. Quinn said that Ephron based one of her famous female film characters on her.

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• She was extremely disappointed that her book had sold out in its first print run. Instead of celebrating a huge publishing hit, she was bitter the publisher didn't have a larger 1st edition print run. At the time it seemed massively entitled. Now I know that she'd been diagnosed as terminally ill, was keeping that secret, and perhaps was frustrated at people not being able to get copies of what might have possibly been her last published work?

• What a miserable cunt. She seemed like a black hole of joy.

• I had dinner with her and some close mutual friends five times over the years. She was very, very funny and very, very smart. But she wasn't very interested if you weren't brilliant, hilarious or famous. Call that cunty if you want but it's basically someone maximizing their time to be with people they enjoy. There's a cut-off point. If that's cunty, so be it. And if you dig a bit into tales of a famous person's cuntiness, you'll usually find quite a bit of bitterness and bile at the source. You see this a lot - people will work or associate with a very successful or famous person and then take that person's disinterest in pursuing a friendship as a sleight or rebuff. It's not - that's not the reason for showing up at work. Everyone I know liked her. I thought she was delightful but of course there was a sense of aloofness. Comes with the territory. It's always fascinating to jump in and out of fame bubbles...really interesting to see what happens when they intersect. It's a different world with a different set of rules and expectations.

• Any guesses as to who R14 is?

• I liked some of her early essays and Heartburn was a fun summer read, but her movies were relentlessly middlebrow and wildly overpraised.

• Remind me not to have a reporter at my deathbed.

• r14's last name is Bernstein and first name isn't Carl.

• Let me tell you about Nora Ephron.....

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• She was a poser and a major league hypocrite. Did a big feminist act when it was fashionable. Then had a bestseller with "Heartburn" and overnight became the nation's number one purveyor of chick flicks. Barf.

• [quote]But she wasn't very interested if you weren't brilliant, hilarious or famous. When she herself was born to famous writers. Another bitch born on third who thinks she got there on merit.

• R14, why did she churn out such mediocrity? Did you figure out?

• So. It turns out that Max killed his mother by getting tattoos. Let that be a lesson to us all.

• He left out the part about lowering a pillow over her face while her friends and family cheered.

• The love for Ms. Ephron is overwhelming!

• R24 made me laugh. That mental image is very funny.

• I once witnessed this: I was waiting in line to enter some LaBute play in the Village. A young college girl went up to the box office and was turned away since the show was sold out. As the girl was leaving Nora (lurking by the box office) pulled her aside and asked would the girl like a ticket? (not sure if the girl recognized her) I thought Nora, the rich film director was going to GIVE the kid the ticket. But now. She named her price which the kid didn't have and then directed the kid to an ATM while Nora waited for the money. (the kid was like 20 bucks short) Carl Bernstein must have giggled when she died.

• She was all hoity-toity and dismissive of the TV series BEWITCHED in interviews when her film version was playing in theaters. The fact that it was one of the more well-written series of its time escaped her. Meanwhile, her own screenplay is easily one of the top contenders for the worst TV-to-film adaptation ever.

• The scene in When Harry Met Sally where Billy Crystal talks about how men and women can't be friends because guys always want to have sex always seemed so strange coming from her pen. I'm sure many, if not most of the men she met didn't want to sleep with her. Did she not own a mirror?

• I was too bored by that article and couldn't finish reading it. I noticed she is pulling her face in those photos, lessening the nasolabial folds. Old trick.

• "I'm sure many, if not most of the men she met didn't want to sleep with her. Did she not own a mirror?" Sweetie, many if not most men are below average looking and happy to take what they can get.

• It's been widely reported that Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal came up with the funniest parts of "When Harry." For instance, it was Billy's idea to have Meg do the orgasm scene since he didn't think she had enough funny things to do in the movie. The most famous scene in a Nora Ephron film had nothing to do with Nora Ephron. I wonder how Nora would feel about having intimate information about her last days ("She cried and cried...her hair was falling out...she was delirious...") printed in the NYTimes for all of her swell friends to gossip about at brunch.

• I like "Heartburn" and "Silkwood" (which is a co-write with Ann somebody) but that's it.

• [quote]It's a different world with a different set of rules and expectations. No, it's not, douchebag. It's the same fucking world for everyone. The rich and famous aren't somehow "better".

• Re: Nora's last days, to quote Nora, 'everything is copy.' Apparently.

• I knew nothing about Nora Ephron aside from her films and a little of her writing, but judging by her own son's piece on her, she sounded like a classist, horrible woman. The piece itself is tiresome in its constant "Chanel flats" and "cucumber sandwiches from William Poll" etc.. Christ. What a pretentious twat, even in her last days.

• It's a charming account of Ephron and her last days. And if she wasn't Florence Nightingale, so what? She was accomplished, and didn't suffer fools lightly. There are plenty of people with far less to offer with twice the attitude.

• [quote] It's a charming account of Ephron and her last days. Holy shit, R37. How is this "charming"? It may be a lot of things, but it certainly doesn't project anything charming, either in Ephron's personality or her suffering. And you sound very empresses by "accomplished" people, (i.e. rich and/or famous). You're also big on that "suffer fools lightly" thing too, aren't you? You've posted it at least twice in as many days.

• R38, yeah, she was accomplished, and I bet she wouldn't have suffered you either. As far as that adage goes, it's a pretty universal one. I'm not the only one who's used it since the dawn of time. or on here. Oh, and spelling. Learn it. It's a good thing.

• [quote] She cried a lot that first night, and then, the next day, she cried some more because she was certain Christopher Hitchens had done no such thing, and she was devastated at the thought that she might not be as brave as him about death Yes, indeed! What cancer patient hasn't wept at the thought they may not be Christopher Hitchens? My grandma from Bratislava was inconsolable about not being Christopher Hitchens when her breast cancer returned. My uncle sobbed about not being as brave as Christopher Hitchens but thankfully, it was a false alarm. He was only anemic from hemorrhoids, not dying of colon cancer. I shudder to think when my time comes, I may not be as brave as a surly, yellow-stained finger, cigarette smelling, misogynist old drunk.

• Wow what a bitter thread. I know two people who she was close friends with, and I know her son Jacob, alhough not well. He is cute, very bright, and very nice. Not a pretencious bone in his body. The people I know who knew her were very fond of her, and also very accomplished. They treasured her frankly. I am sure she did not suffer fools- and what the hell is wrong with liking Prada and Armani, particularly if you can easily afford it? And pinapple milk shakes and walks in the Park. My guess is nothing, unless you are envious of those who can afford Prada and express pleasure derrived from life's simple pleasure and luxuries. It is a well written and thoughtful piece by the son of a famous and enormously accomplished woman. Most on this thread have not a clue of the depth and breadth of her work. Not like I am going to pay much attention to the bitter dish.

• R41. Well said.

• There's R41 in her Chanel flats

• [quote]I know two people who she was close friends with, and I know her son Jacob, alhough not well. He is cute, very bright, and very nice. Not a pretencious bone in his body. R42=R41=R39 They also have many, many daddy issues.

• [quote] Not like I am going to pay much attention to the bitter dish. Except you did. So much so that you had to harumphingy comment, with your "pretencious" remarks about our lack of appreciation for "breadth."

• [quote]I wonder how Nora would feel about having intimate information about her last days ... printed in the NYTimes for all of her swell friends to gossip about at brunch. I imagine she would feel no worse than Carl Bernstein felt about having their divorce turned into a comic novel and film. At least her son waited until she was dead.

• Overrated hack who should have been shot for writing one mediocre script after another.

• She was the Queen of Frau Porn.

• I think Nancy Myers is the Queen of Frau Porn.

• everyone was fucking rich in her movies! ugh! as my ex would say "propaganda!!"

• [quote]I am sure she did not suffer fools- and what the hell is wrong with liking Prada and Armani, particularly if you can easily afford it? The problem is that just because someone isn't wearing Prada doesn't make them a fool, unworthy of time and attention. Nora's judgement of people based on their clothes, net worth and societal standing is what's causing the collective disgust. The very best writers are interested in ALL people. Not just a rarefied few. Her work was like her pineapple milkshakes, sugary-acidic treats that should be enjoyed in moderation.

• Her early magazine articles are still a great pleasure to read. The last couple of collections of her work are very slight by comparison. I suppose she lost interest in writing about the time her movie career took off. I've always assumed that Meryl Streep had studied her mannerisms and voice for "Heartburn"; if true, did Ephron realize how irritating Streep made her seem?

• [quote]I am sure she did not suffer fools- and what the hell is wrong with liking Prada and Armani, particularly if you can easily afford it? There is absolutely nothing wrong about nice, expensive things. What's icky is giving those things too much prominence and importance.

• Her scripts were feel-good ones and, yeah, her protagonists in films were rich with Martha Stewart kitchens with Pacific coast views. You went to an Ephron chick-flick and it was comfortable. What's wrong with that? Her essays were far more biting and incisive, but Hollywood blockbusters don't always have time for that. Oh, and its rich that a bunch of queens on here who are probably starving to squeeze into a pair of $500 jeans are bitching about someone who's naturally thin wearing an Armani pantsuit.

• [quote]I think Nancy Myers is the Queen of Frau Porn. Nancy Myers and Nora Ephron proved that Hollywood women filmmakers can be as successful as men... in producing dreck.

• The article was heavy going. Her son obviously doesn't have her light touch or an ounce of her wit. One thing that stood out for me from the article was that she had a housekeeper for twenty five years, (who wept in her hospital room). She wrote about everything in her life but never her. Maybe she liked people to think that she was having a harder time of bringing up two children 'alone' than she actually was. Or she wanted the middle American frau to relate to her. Some of her writing was so funny, so witty. She was such good company to read. It's so strange that it rarely reflected in her film scripts. Maybe it's because the only character being funny in her books, was her.

• Consuela! Fetch me my slippers!

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• [quote]I know her son Jacob, alhough not well. He is cute, very bright, and very nice. Not a pretencious bone in his body. If you don't know him well, how can you be sure he doesn't have a pretentious bone in his body? This is like charlie telling us he's an expert on the personalities and moral worths of the Kennedys because his sister knows Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg slightly.

• [quote]Oh, and its rich that a bunch of queens on here who are probably starving to squeeze into a pair of $500 jeans are bitching about someone who's naturally thin wearing an Armani pantsuit. You have not a single clue as to what other people are like here, do you? Whatever the problems of people who post on Datalounge, there are very few of us here who are the sorts of gay men who would want to wear $500 jeans.

• I eat dead Nora Ephron's excrement and her fossolized 1970's cuntpads.

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• [quote]Her scripts were feel-good ones Funny, they always made me feel bad because I couldn't believe someone became a millionaire for writing such garbage.

• She represents a type of woman who has made the idea of living in Manhattan seem very unappealing. To have to interact with people like her on a daily basis would be truly annoying.

• I hate label queens of any kind.

• [quote] I couldn't believe someone became a millionaire for writing such garbage. What planet do you live on?

• [quote]I think Nancy Myers is the Queen of Frau Porn. No, she is the Queen of Interior Design Porn.