Nora Ephron (May 19, 1941-June 26, 2012)

(CNN) -- Novelist, filmmaker and screenwriter Nora Ephron has died after a battle with leukemia, her publisher said Tuesday. She was 71.

"She brought an awful lot of people a tremendous amount of joy. She will be sorely missed," said the statement from Alfred A. Knopf. Ephron's romantic comedies included the box office hits "When Harry Met Sally," and "Sleepless in Seattle," both of which earned her screenwriting Oscar nominations. She was also nominated for an Oscar for writing "Silkwood," the story of anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood.

She was one of the first women to write and direct her own films, including "Sleepless in Seattle." Ephron, known for creating strong female characters in her stories, wrote and directed "Julie & Julia," which earned Meryl Streep a best actress Oscar nomination in 2010.

Ephron's parents, Henry and Phoebe Ephron, were also screenwriters, with "Carousel," "Desk Set" and "There's No Business Like Show Business" on their resumes. "They were funny and they believed that everything was copy," Ephron said in a CNN interview in 2009. "They believed that anything in life could be turned into a story, which is really the first rule of humor."

Ephron's life was particularly central to her father's memoir, "We Thought We Could Do Anything." Humor was important for surviving her childhood, she said. "I don't think you can get through almost anything without humor," she said.

She married screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi in 1987, eight years after she divorced investigative reporter Carl Bernstein. The destruction of her marriage to Bernstein was the basis of her book and movie "Heartburn." "And I feel bad for the people who don't at some point understand that there's something funny in even the worst things that can happen to you," Ephron said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the stories Ephron set in his city are classics. "The loss of Nora Ephron is a devastating one for New York City's arts and cultural community," Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement. "From her earliest days at New York City's newspapers to her biggest Hollywood successes, Nora always loved a good New York story, and she could tell them like no one else."

Tiny Wisdom: The Relationships We Wish Would Improve

by Lori Deschene

“When you stop trying to change others and work on changing yourself, your world changes for the better.” ~Unknown

There are certain relationships that we don’t want to end; we just want them to improve.

Sometimes it might seem like that will only happen if someone else starts acting differently—with more kindness, respect, thoughtfulness, compassion, understanding, or consideration.

Years ago, a therapist told me we can’t ever change other people; we can only change how we respond to them.

At the time, I found this incredibly frustrating because I didn’t know what I could do differently. I only knew I wanted to be treated better because I was tired of feeling bad.

But what do we do when we respond more calmly, or try to see things differently, but we still find ourselves getting hurt?

Sometimes we don’t want to completely close a door, with a family member, for example; we just don’t know how to keep it open without opening ourselves up to pain.

I’ve learned that changing our response to people means changing how we engage with them.

It can mean seeing someone less frequently, or avoiding certain topics, or knowing when to change the subject.

It might mean refusing to feel guilty or defensive, taking things less personally, or modeling the type of behavior we’d like to see in them.

It might also mean accepting that not all relationships need to be close and intimate.

As much as we might want someone to fill a certain role in our lives, they have to want to do it. And if they aren’t, it’s our job to recognize that so we don’t continually cause ourselves stress by trying to smash a square peg into a round hole.

Little in this world is more painful than wanting to be close with someone but knowing it’s a recipe for disaster. It’s harder when we think it could be so simple if that person could just realize how much we care and try, even if a little, to reciprocate it like we deserve.

But we generally don’t change when other people force us to do it; we change when we realize what we might lose if we don’t, and recognize that the discomfort of doing things differently is better than the pain of that loss.

We can’t make someone else make an effort. But we can make smart decisions for our own well-being. This may inspire someone else to change; it might not.

Either way, we’ve honored the most important relationship in our lives: the one we have with ourselves.

'Je T'Aime' He Sang to His Women and Himself

After some 40 years, I have just learned who the writer of the sexiest song aka Je T'aime is -- Serge Gainsbourg.  His biopic, GAINSBOURG: A Heroic Life, is a fascinating depiction of a tortured and gifted soul.

                                   The French Dylan. Also Beatty, Stern, Johnny Rotten ... (August 28, 2011)             

In France, at least, Gainsbourg’s legend has hardly waned in the decades since his death. It is therefore not surprising that he has been admitted to the pantheon of film biography, joining Édith Piaf, so memorably impersonated by Marion Cotillard in the 2007 film “La Vie en Rose,” as well as English-language stars like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. Directed by Joann Sfar, a comic-book artist making his feature debut, “Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life” is a primer for the curious and a keepsake for fans, an affectionate tribute that follows its hero through the familiar stages of modern celebrity, from childhood trauma to picturesque dissolution.

Born Lucien Ginsburg in Paris to a Jewish family from Russia, this future pop idol (played as a boy by Kacey Mottet-Klein) survives the Nazi occupation with a mischievous resilience that sets a tone for his later escapades. He also acquires an alter ego — his true “face” and secret sharer — who is incarnated by a giant, hook-nosed puppet, one of two fantastical effigies, drawn from the imagery of anti-Semitism by way of Mr. Sfar’s prodigious visual imagination, that join the celebrity impersonators who populate the film.

Of these, the hardest-working is Eric Elmosnino, who plays the adult Gainsbourg with jug ears, heavy eyes, a gravel voice and a perpetual Gitane. Gainsbourg turns, before our eyes, from a skinny young nightclub performer in a trim tuxedo into a shaggy and grizzled talk-show fixture, all the while walking the narrow boundary between repulsiveness and charm.

Along the way there are marriages, love affairs and a handful of songs, among them famous duets sung with Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), France Gall (Sara Forestier) and Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon). Mr. Sfar and his production designers recreate the look and mood of the times, and they provide a generous tour of Gainsbourg’s musical styles, which encompassed music hall crooning, teeny-bopper bubblegum, rock, folk and reggae. You can hear snippets of most of his greatest hits, including “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Comic Strip” and of course “Je T’Aime ... Moi Non Plus.”