She wrote about her breasts and her blowouts, her reporter days at The Post and her pre-divorce nights (“Heartburn”). If Nora Ephron were with us today, she’d probably regale us with tales of her play, “Lucky Guy.”
Ephron died last June, nearly a year before “Lucky Guy” — starring her “Sleepless in Seattle” leading man, Tom Hanks — opened to warm reviews and a Tony nomination for Best Play. If it does win, she’ll become part of a very select club — those awarded Broadway’s highest honor posthumously, a feat achieved by “Rent” composer Jonathan Larson (1996) and T.S. Eliot for “Cats” (1983).
Even if “Lucky Guy” doesn’t take home a Tony on Sunday, those who knew her felt lucky indeed. Here are their Nora stories.
RIGHT BY A HAIR
“When we were doing [off-Broadway’s] ‘Love, Loss, and What I Wore,’ we talked about the different looks each of the five women in the show had, and I said, ‘I’ve just noticed we have three blondes sitting together — maybe we should break up the seating.’
“ ‘That’s a great idea,’ Nora said, ‘and I think you need to get a better haircut.’ I said, ‘Oh?’ She said, ‘You’ll go to this guy, he’ll cut your hair, and you’ll look so much younger!’ and she was totally right. She usually was.”
— Daryl Roth, producer
CRITIQUES, YES — CARVEL, NO
“One weekend, she invited us to her house in the Hamptons. It had just been her birthday and to celebrate the occasion, I brought a Carvel ice-cream cake. She put the cake in the freezer and declined to take it out all weekend, preferring to serve more grown-up desserts. Nora listened to my opinions on art, but not on food and most certainly not on Carvel cakes.”
— Deborah Solomon, art critic and writer
LUNCH WAS ON HER
“The Post was on West Street then, when Nora was with us. She was in her 20s, slender and wore beautiful clothes — and she was always nice to the copy kids. When she’d send a kid down for lunch, she’d say, ‘Pick up something for yourself.’ Whether she sent them out for a cup of coffee or a sandwich, she’d always say, ‘Get something for yourself.’ And she’d give you a $10 bill so you actually could!”
— Anne Aquilina, New York Post administrative editor and former copy girl
CHILDBIRTH MADE EASY
“We were looking for comedians for ‘This Is My Life’ — the movie of my book ‘This Is Your Life’ — and Nora said, ‘Come with me, and Delia [Ephron, her sister] to see some comedians.’ I was pregnant, and told her I couldn’t because I’d miss my Lamaze class. ‘OK,’ Nora said. ‘Here’s what you would have learned tonight,’ and she made these heavy panting sounds: ‘Hehehehehehe.’ So of course I went with her, and got through childbirth just fine!”
— Meg Wolitzer, writer
BUTTER MADE IT BETTER
“I worked with Nora first on ‘You’ve Got Mail,’ and the catering was exquisite. On ‘Bewitched,’ the catering was the most elaborate I’ve ever seen in my life! On ‘Love, Loss, and What I Wore,’ she gave me her personal cookbook . . . her favorite recipes, and where to buy the best butter, meat and everything in NYC! I eat a lot more butter than I did before I met Nora Ephron, and I’m the better for it.”
— Katie Finneran, actress
NO DETAIL LEFT UNTURNED
“Nora gave wonderful dinner parties. She thought about every detail. There were prompted conversations: ‘What did you inherit from your mother and father that you liked?’ and ‘What did you inherit that you didn’t like?’ After the entrees, she’d reorganize the seating . . . and you were guaranteed to have the time of your life.”
— Patricia Marx, writer
THE MAVEN OF EVERYTHING
“She always had a secret for the best. I was going to LA, and she told me, ‘Stay in my house — best view in LA!’ — and it was stunning. She showed up another day and said, ‘Here are some caramels. The best caramels in the world!’ It didn’t matter where they were from: Nora had sanctioned them. She’d done the research and figured it out . . .
“At one point she said, ‘I just bought a new couch. Do you want to see it?’ and she whipped out her iPhone. She said, ‘Finding the right couch is almost as hard as finding the right husband!’ ”
— George C. Wolfe, “Lucky Guy” director
THE FIXER
“She was connected with every doctor in the world, so if you or your kid had anything, she knew where to go and how to get you in. She’d often get you an appointment! If you needed to know what to wear to an event, if you should bring a gift or not bring one — she’d tell you. She was a concierge friend.”
— Rosie O’Donnell, part of the cast of “Sleepless in Seattle”