Inside 'Sleepless in Seattle' screenwriter Nora Ephron's pivotal role on Amazon's 'Good Girls Revolt'
AP
The late Nora Ephron plays a pivotal role in Amazon's new drama "Good Girls Revolt," which debuted Sunday on the company's streaming video service.
The truth is Ephron - best known for writing and directing "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail" - didn't play a role in the events dramatized on the drama.
"Good Girls Revolt" is based on a series of events in 1970 in which a group of female researchers at Newsweek filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming the news magazine only allowed men to become reporters.
In the first episode, Ephron (played by Grace Gummer) is a newly-hired researcher who quits after finding out that she'll never be able to write at the magazine. That act emboldens the other women and begins a chain of events that will lead to the EEOC filing.
Ephron's appearance is based on some truth and some creative license on the part of the show's producers. The truth is Ephron, who died in 2012, did work at Newsweek, but several years earlier than the series is set.
"It happened a few years earlier than we said - probably '64 I think - and so we accelerated it and put it at the time of '69 so that she was sort of our magical catalyst," show producer Lynda Obst told Business Insider. "I knew her profoundly well. She was one of my best friends, and I informed the family. They knew the whole time we were casting and was aware of everything. In fact, they came to our premiere and were very, very supportive. And I tried to share as much as I could with ['Good Girls Revolt' creator Dana Calvo], who wrote her so beautifully."
With help from Obst, research, and reading Ephron's writing, Calvo felt the maverick writer fit right into the story.
"She had no fear," Calvo told Business Insider. "She never had any fear, and that's an inspirational person for me. And her mother worked, and so she was naturally feminist. And I think that she loved boys, she loved men, but this would have been a very unnatural situation for her. She inspired women wherever she went. She was like the pied piper of girls. She was that to me, and she was that to almost every girl that she ever met. So I thought it was appropriate."
Amazon Prime Video
"She'll come back in two more episodes, and Grace was just at our wrap party," Calvo told Business Insider. "I mean, there's so much affection there, and she's such great friends with so many of the people."
Watch a trailer for "Good Girls Revolt" below:
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- Saudi Arabia wants China to help fund its struggling $500 billion Neom megaproject. Investors may not be too excited.
- Catan adds climate change to the latest edition of the world-famous board game
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- JNK India IPO allotment – How to check allotment, GMP, listing date and more
- Indian Army unveils selfie point at Hombotingla Pass ahead of 25th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market