What Nora almost left Harry . . . was a lot nicer than a wagon wheel coffee table.
“When Harry Met Sally. . . ” writer Nora Ephron remembered one of the inspirations for the Harry Burns character in her will.
Ephron’s will, dated April of this year, left all of her personal property to her husband, “Wiseguy” author and “Goodfellas” screenplay co-writer Nicholas Pileggi, but said that if Pileggi were to die before her, her valuable 1938 drawing by Henri Matisse should go to columnist Richard Cohen.
Cohen, a former foe turned close pal of Ephron’s, was one of the people the writer and director drew upon for the character in the beloved romantic comedy.
The will was signed almost three months before the “Sleepless in Seattle” writer died of leukemia at age 71.
It estimates her estate to be worth about $15 million, and leaves numerous cash gifts for her relatives, including $500,000 for her sister Delia, $100,000 for her sister Amy, and $25,000 to a third sister, Hallie Ephron Touger.
The former Post reporter also left cash bequests to two of her longtime employees – John Sacha was left $100,000, while Teodolinda Diaz was left $25,000.
Virtually everything else goes to Pileggi, a bestselling author and former crime reporter for the Associated Press who was Ephron’s husband of 25 years.
The “You’ve Got Mail” writer left him the rest of her money and all of her property, with the “hope that Nick will distribute certain items of my jewelry among my friends and relatives in accordance with wishes that I have made known to him.”
Her sons from her previous marriage to legendary Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein have been provided for in a separate trust, the court papers say.