As friends and loved ones honor the iconic writer at a memorial service in New York on Monday, James Atlas talks to Meryl Streep, Calvin Trillin, and more of Ephron's admirers about a life lived to the hilt.
It came out of nowhere.
Late in the afternoon of Tuesday, June 26, the first reports began to circulate on the Internet. “Nora Ephron is gravely ill,” reported New York magazine, “and is not expected to live through the night”—“which we know,” it added in a caustic detail Ephron would have appreciated, “because Liz Smith pre-published her obituary,” on wowOwow. At 5:09, still two hours premature, a new bulletin was issued: “Nora has died. She was 71.” Within minutes, the ether was flooded with tweets, tumblr dispatches, Facebook entries, blogs. Soon would follow list upon list of “Favorite Nora Ephron Quotes” and “Most Memorable Movie Scenes” (Meg Ryan’s canonical faked orgasm in When Harry Met Sally invariably at the top). The next day’s front-page obituary in The New York Times, accompanied by a large color photograph, was “above the fold”—a subtle but significant distinction she would have appreciated.
Read the story here. Includes video clip from the infamous deli scene in 'When Harry Met Sally...'
Read the story here. Includes video clip from the infamous deli scene in 'When Harry Met Sally...'
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Nora Ephron poses for a photo at her home in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010. (Charles Sykes - AP Photo).jpg