On The Internet, It’s Always Nora Ephron Fall

Chunky sweaters. Down comforters. Lived-in kitchens. The cozy aesthetics of Nora Ephron’s films are perennial favorites online. In an excerpt from Ilana Kaplan’s new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, she explains how social media is introducing new folks to them.

Every year when a whiff of the crisp New York air begins to smell like fall and the first leaf hits the pavement, so begins “Nora Ephron fall,” the seasonal sentimentality that lingers in the atmosphere of Nora’s work. Practically immortalized by the scene in You’ve Got Mail where Meg Ryan is crossing the street in her chunky turtleneck sweater, pumpkin in tow, this phenomenon has also been declared “Meg Ryan fall.” That image has been supplemented by one of Crystal and Ryan surrounded by the leaves changing in Central Park in When Harry Met Sally. The backdrop of New York in its (arguably) premier season paired with one of Nora’s muses has become a source of comfort and familiarity for those who tolerate all the sticky summers and unpredictable winters of the city.

The proliferation of those images-turned-memes on social media has helped Nora and her legacy gain new life. It should be noted that the scenes themselves are provided with no context but have become emblematic of her signature autumnal aesthetic. Beyond “Nora Ephron fall” and “Meg Ryan fall,” the rise of “cozy boy fall” was propelled by Crystal’s chunky sweater and straight-leg jeans in When Harry Met Sally. It’s an understatement to say that this niche social media discourse has spread like wildfire online year after year.

Although Nora’s signature rom-coms were released more than 25 years ago, social media has helped pass her films on to future generations. Like the writer-director’s movies themselves, these screen grabs have become comfort food — a signal that coziness and rom-coms never go out of style.

Just as Nancy Meyers fans salivate over the polished kitchens in her movies, Nora’s fans long for the cozy interiors featured in her films. So much so that there’s an entire Instagram account with more than 43,000 followers dedicated to swooning over them.

After all, home has been a central part of Nora’s work, whether she’s detailing her old haunts of New York City or her time spent in her favorite apartment, in the Apthorp. In a wistful New Yorker essay about the latter, she described it as such: “From the street, it’s lumpen, Middle European, and solid as a tanker, but its core is a large courtyard with two marble fountains and a lovely garden. Enter the courtyard, and the city falls away; you find yourself in the embrace of a beautiful, sheltered park. There are stone benches where you can sit in the afternoon as your children run merrily around, ride their bicycles, fight with one another, and threaten to fall into the fountain and drown. In the spring, there are tulips and azaleas, in summer pale-blue hostas and hydrangeas.”

The Instagram account @NoraEphronInteriors is an homage to Nora’s screenwriting career and a close study of the scenery of some of her most memorable productions. While it serves as an immersive time capsule, what’s most captivating about the account is how it hyperfocuses on the details: Annie’s bubble-gum kitchen in Sleepless in Seattle, Julia’s “sculptural” kitchen set in Julie & Julia, Eve’s “rustic bungalow” in Hanging Up, and the French doors in You’ve Got Mail. The Instagram wades through Nora’s penchant for lived-in spaces with huge, down comforter–flanked beds, which not only provide home decor inspiration but remind viewers of how immersive Nora could make the worlds of her characters.

Nora’s legacy has exploded on social media in other ways, too. When the former nanny of Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis’ two children spoke to the Daily Mail about the dissolution of the couple’s relationship, she revealed that the Ted Lasso actor was allegedly so upset after Wilde tried to bring her rumored boyfriend Harry Styles a salad with her “special dressing” that he filmed her and “tried to prevent her leaving by lying under the car.”

The loaded tabloid story set fire to the internet: everyone and their mother, father, grandmother, every Twitter user, Luddite, etc. had questions about the dressing. People began scouring the ends of the Earth trying to figure out what it was.

And while everyone was doing that, Wilde posted a salad dressing recipe, but not just any recipe: the Heartburn vinaigrette. “Mix two tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard with 2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar. Then, whisking constantly with a fork, slowly add 6 tablespoons olive oil, until the vinaigrette is thick and creamy; this makes a very strong vinaigrette that’s perfect for salad greens like arugula and watercress and endive.” The infamous Nora recipe from her autobiographical novel about infidelity and divorce was the mic drop of the century that trended on Twitter and became a hit piece for every news site. Those who knew about the vinaigrette told their stories about the salad dressing — how they had been making it for years, or how they knew instantly from Wilde’s post that it was indeed Nora’s salad dressing. For others, the recipe reveal just became a new addition to their lunchtime repertoire.

Really, this social media moment made everyone from Boomers to Gen Z discover (or rediscover) one of Nora’s greatest works and perhaps grasp just how influential she has remained in literature, journalism, and film. Something as simple as a dressing recipe and the significance of its origins could rile up the internet 40 years after its release. The fact that Nora has managed to cultivate this reaction tells you everything you need to know about her legacy.

Reprinted from Nora Ephron at the Movies: A Visual Celebration of the Writer and Director Behind When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and More, published by Abrams. Text copyright ©2024 Ilana Kaplan, Cover © 2024 Abrams