EPHRON, NORA

EPHRON, NORA (1941– ), U.S. writer, film director. Ephron was born on Manhattan's Upper West Side, but her family moved to Beverly Hills by the time she turned three. Her parents, screenwriting duo Pheobe and Henry Ephron, wrote such classics as Carousel (1956) and There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). They based their script Take Her, She's Mine on the letters their daughter wrote home while she was attending Wellesley College. In 1962, after finishing school, Ephron moved to New York City, launching a career in journalism. She worked for the New York Post and, later, for publications such as Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, and New York Magazine. Her work is collected in such books as Wallflower at the Orgy (1970), Crazy Salad (1975), and Scribble, Scribble (1978). After a brief marriage to writer Dan Greenburg, Ephron married carl bernstein , the journalist who, along with Bob Woodward, first brought the Watergate scandal to the country's attention in the pages of the Washington Post. The marriage broke up while Ephron was pregnant with their second son, Max, and the breakup became the basis for her semiautobiographical novel, Heartburn. With two young children to support, Ephron turned to her family trade – screenwriting. Her scripts frequently focus on strong, independent women struggling to achieve their ambitions. Ephron wrote such films as Silkwood (1983), When Harry Met Sally (1989), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). She made her directorial debut with the comedy This is My Life (1992), which she co-wrote with her sister Delia. She continued to write and direct movies, including the box office smash You've Got Mail (1998) and Bewitched (2005). (Casey Schwartz (2nd ed.)