My two favorite Nora Ephron stories are:

How she and her husband, Carl Bernstein -- they were happily married at the time -- went behind everybody's back and re-wrote certain scenes for All the President's Men.  They were worried that heartthrob, Redford, playing Woodward was getting all the good stuff, leaving Hoffman, playing Bernstein, with nothing.  So, they totally made Hoffman catnip to the ladies and introduced a whole new element to the story which worked brilliantly.  And, of course, Ephron was such a great writer, all that stuff got left in, to great effect.

But, of course, after the film, Bernstein became a massive star and, natch, cheated on Ephron, which she wrote about in her brill novel, Heartburn.

That leads me to my second fave story, to wit:  When Ephron had finally had enough of Bernstein's philandering she pegged him right in the kisser with a key lime pie.  And, of course, as she re-tells the story in Heartburn, she gives you the recipe, to boot!

So sad.  RIP, Sister; a great novelist, essayist, culture critic, screenwriter, and director, I miss you, already.

Think Renee and I will watch Dame Meryl and the lovely Amy Adams in Julie and Julia tonight.

"I'll have what she's having."













P.S.  The peach pie recipe in Heartburn is to die for.  Renee makes it all the time and we lived on it, my folks and I, when we first moved to Austim in 1983.