Nora Ephron, screenwriter and director, dead at 71

LOS ANGELES — Nora Ephron, acclaimed screenwriter and director, has died at age 71 after a battle with Leukemia, USA Today reported Tuesday. 

Her son Jacob reportedly has her funeral planned before his mother's death, according to the Associated Press. 

Ephron, 71, is known for her iconic films, including "When Harry Met Sally," "Sleepless in Seattle," and "You've Got Mail," ABC News reported. She also earned wide acclaim for her 2008 novel "I Feel Bad About My Neck," and co-wrote a play with her sister Delia called "Love, Loss, and What I Wore."

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Writer Liz Smith, a close friend of Ephron's, wrote an article that was published on the website Women on the Web on Monday that made it seem like Ephron had already passed, MTV News reported, sparking early speculations about her death. It was not online as of Tuesday evening. 

"She never gave the answer I expected to anything," Smith wrote, according to MTV. "She was grave in her humor, which made it deadly, unexpected, truly funny and dauntingly intelligent. She seemed never to want or expect anything, while always demanding the best from the rest of us. She was — always — right and somehow left the smartest, most ambitious and silliest of us in the dust at her feet."

Ephron was married to writer and filmmaker Nicholas Pillegi, according to ABC News. She also has two children from her previous marriage to Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein.

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