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Tavis: I am pleased to welcome Nora Ephron to this program. The acclaimed novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and director is a three-time Oscar nominee for movies, of course, like 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Silkwood.' Prior to her writing fame, she started her career as an intern in the Kennedy White House. More on that in a moment. Her new book, though, is called 'I Feel Bad About My Neck' - a collection of essays on her life - 'And Other Thoughts About Being a Woman.' Nora, nice to have you on the program.

Nora Ephron: My pleasure.

Tavis: It's a pleasure to meet you. A power-packed little book here.

Ephron: Thank you.

Tavis: Jonathan, can you put that cover up again? I wanna know how close we can zoom in on that. I love this - yeah, there, nice picture.

Ephron: Isn't it a good cover?

Tavis: That is a great cover.

Ephron: I know.

Tavis: (unintelligible) (Laugh)

Ephron: It's one of the miracles of your life, when they do a good cover for your book.

Tavis: That is a great, so you're happy with this.

Ephron: Yeah, I am.

Tavis: So what's in that little jar right there?

Ephron: Something that cost a huge amount of money that won't do anything for you.

Tavis: Yeah?

Ephron: It's just, you just see it at the drug store, and you go oh, this is gonna be the one. This is gonna be the fountain of youth. (Laugh) It's only what? A hundred and ten - oh, well. If it works. And then you buy it, and it works. It does work. For about 72 hours.

Tavis: Right.

Ephron: For 72 hours, you think (laugh) it's working, it's working. It feels definitely firmer, definitely. And then, (laugh) and then goes into the cupboard with all the others. All the other testaments to your sort of hopefulness that something is gonna turn back the clock.

Tavis: And I got worse news for you. And if, during that 72 hours, you happen to be traveling, after all that money spent on it, they make you throw it away anyway.

Ephron: I know, but you could put it in your suitcase, yes.

Tavis: You can check it, I guess. Yeah. (Laugh)

Ephron: Yeah, yeah, right. (Laugh)

Tavis: That's just my own little dig.

Ephron: Yeah, see, right. (Laugh)

Tavis: I threw away a bunch of stuff the other day...

Ephron: You did?

Tavis: ...trying to get - well, I was on the road when it happened, so I got caught in the middle of it. So I was, checking a bag for me is just not an option. I can't stand to check bags. 'Cause you get back to L.A., it adds...

Ephron: And then you stand there.

Tavis: ...thirty-five minutes on your (unintelligible).

Ephron: I know, I know, I know.

Tavis: Anyway, this is not about me and my travels, so forgive me for that. I just had to get that out of my system.

Ephron: Why? It's good, it's good for us to talk about more important things than (laugh) this, right? We can delude people into thinking that we care about them. Yeah.

Tavis: (Laugh) Aside from being more chronologically gifted, what got you to wanna put this stuff on paper?

Ephron: Well, I think that was the main reason, is that you get to be a certain age, and you start reading stuff about the age you are. And you think, what is wrong with these people who are writing these books? Do they not have necks? (Laugh) Why are they lying to us? Why are they saying oh, you've reached this fabulous period of your life when you can travel, when the truth is you go and travel, you take a nice walk, your hip goes out? That's the truth. (Laugh)

You really have time to be in shape. You get in shape after the age of 50, you're in the hospital. You are. Everybody I know who goes out and plays a little softball, they break their leg. About two years ago, somebody sent me the videotape of the movie 'Chicago?' And I confused it with an exercise video. (Laugh) And thought, for a brief period of time, that I was Catherine Zeta Jones.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Ephron: And went sort of prancing around the house with these not very heavy weights, and yet they were light as air because of my bonding with Catherine, mentally. And the music and everything. And I threw out both shoulders. And it wasn't the movie's fault, but the point is that you get to a certain point where all the things that are supposed to make you better sort of break you.

Swimming. Swimmer's ear, instantly, right? So that's, I just thought well, I should write a little bit about this. And not just about looking older, feeling older and everything, but about some of the other things that go through your head simultaneously. Because as the truth is, we're all happy to be here. We'd all rather look older than be dead.

Tavis: You don't sound very happy to be here, Nora.

Ephron: I am really happy to be here. (Laugh) And right here. Right here. Although I could be having my nails done.

Tavis: Yeah, let me...(laugh)

Ephron: Yeah. Yeah. (Laugh)

Tavis: I can have Sheila come out and do it while you're sitting here.

Ephron: Oh, that would be great.

Tavis: Would you like to kill two birds with one stone?

Ephron: Yes. (Laugh) I just mean that's another thing you end up doing when you get older.

Tavis: Right.

Ephron: Is you spend so much time sort of trying desperately to keep from just looking just a little older. You're just constantly putting stuff on your face, and having things removed from yourself. And (laugh) opening up copies of 'Vogue' so that you can find new ways to throw whatever money you've managed to save into the arms of some doctor who (laugh) has just come up with a new way of lasering your face that feels like electroshock, (laugh) and all these things.

Tavis: (Laugh) I wanna get to some of these other thoughts that you've been having about being a woman, who is again more chronologically gifted by the day. But before...

Ephron: Chronologically gifted. I like that.

Tavis: My grandmother used to tell me that.

Ephron: That's good.

Tavis: She didn't like being called old. She preferred chronologically gifted.

Ephron: That's good.

Tavis: Yes, that's Big Mama for you. Before I move to some of these other thoughts, though, so there's gotta be something you like about this process.

Ephron: Of getting older?

Tavis: Yeah.

Ephron: Well, I don't know.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Ephron: No, no, I mean...

Tavis: It's not for wimps, but you gotta be...

Ephron: Well, it's not for sissies; that is really true. No, I don't know about it, because they always say well, you're wiser. But I was not that stupid when I was young. (Laugh) And so if they came along...

Tavis: I like that. I was never stupid to begin with, yeah. (Laugh)

Ephron: If they came along and said would you give back three IQ points for 10 years, yes. There's no one coming along and doing that, though. I've noticed that. There's a lot of hypotheticals that come along. (Laugh) If you had it to do over, what would you do? Well, who is offering this?

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Ephron: Someone who can actually give me the ability to do it over? And then you get so confused, 'cause you still wanna live in the same apartment and things. (Laugh) And is that gonna be part of the deal if you do it over?

Tavis: See, I'm fascinated by this now. So if - just work with me on this - so if there was this person; if God on high or whomever said to you, Nora...

Ephron: Yes. Someone in a movie, probably.

Tavis: Somebody in a movie, probably. (Laugh) Played by Morgan Freeman or somebody.

Ephron: For sure, yes.

Tavis: Since the other guy is dead now, so we'll go with Morgan. If you could give back a few IQ points for a few more years, you'd do this?

Ephron: Yes. Oh, sure. Are you kidding?

Tavis: Yeah.

Ephron: Yeah. Oh my God. Wouldn't you?

Tavis: I ain't got that much to give, so I'm not sure. (Laugh)

Ephron: Okay. Well, yeah, I would. I would, yeah. Yeah, I would, and I'd, yeah. There are some things I'd like to do over bigtime. Yeah. This is, these people who say...

Tavis: Gimme one. Gimme one.

Ephron: ...no regrets are being...

Tavis: Gimme one. Gimme one. One thing that you'd do over again.

Ephron: Oh, well, I, oh my God, there are things I wouldn't have written. There are things I wouldn't have said. There are, oh my God. Oh, no. Yeah. (Laugh) Oh my God, there are so many things. So many things. As long as I get to be still married to the same guy now, and living in the same place, and I still have my kids.

Tavis: But see, you can't have it that way, though.

Ephron: I know. But who wrote this? Who made up the rules to this?

Tavis: It's my question.

Ephron: It doesn't exist.

Tavis: I'm writing the rules. I'm asking the questions here.

Ephron: I know. That's the problem. (Laugh)

Tavis: So (laugh) I'm thinking if you gave back those IQ points, you might not have been smart enough to make the right choice to marry the guy you married.

Ephron: No, just a couple. Just two. Just two or three.

Tavis: Okay, all right, all right.

Ephron: Just a few.

Tavis: Okay.

Ephron: Yeah. It's so interesting that we think we know the rules to this game, this total hypothetical game called would you, if you had it to do over? (Laugh) It's not out there.

Tavis: It's not an option.

Ephron: Yes.

Tavis: I got your point.

Ephron: It's make-believe.

Tavis: I will never ask that question ever again.

Ephron: Yes. But you know what I mean.

Tavis: I got it, though. But since I know it's not rooted in any reality, why waste good TV time asking a question like that?

Ephron: No, no, I like it, though.

Tavis: Let me move on, then. You didn't have a choice, did you? Being the daughter of two screenwriters, this was, like, in your...

Ephron: What, writing?

Tavis: Yeah.

Ephron: Well, they wanted their kids to be writers, there's no question of that. My parents were screenwriters, and they had four daughters, and we all write. So that's amazing. Talk about powerful parents. And my mother always said to us, everything is copy.

Tavis: I like that. Everything is copy.

Ephron: Yeah, it was a really great lesson.

Tavis: There's something to learn, yeah.

Ephron: It was a great lesson, because it really taught you that whatever you were going through could be a story. And if you were really lucky, it'll be something funny. So.

Tavis: You got some great stuff in here. And let me just jump and pick a couple of them right quick, 'cause I only have a few minutes left. The piece that you write about your - I think angst would not be strong enough a word. Maybe anger is better. You were pretty PO'd at Bill Clinton.

Ephron: Yeah, I was. I am, yeah.

Tavis: Still are.

Ephron: Well, because I think in speaking of another game we like to play, which is how did we get here. How did we get into this war that isn't working and all of the rest of it. You can blame a lot of people for who lost that election back then, six, five, whenever. However many horrible, long years ago. You can blame Al Gore, and you can blame Ralph Nader and you can blame George Bush.

But I blame Bill. I just do. I just think he squandered his presidency the night that woman delivered that pizza to him. And if he hadn't, we wouldn't be where we are. And there would be a lot of people who are alive today who aren't. That's a big deal. So I feel that he broke my heart. I write about him in the book as if he's an old boyfriend, in a way, in that I did go for him. I believed he was the guy. I thought oh my God, we finally got a President, and then it turned out we didn't. So, he broke my heart.

Tavis: Of course, you can't talk about Bill Clinton without talking about the other President, the handsome guy, JFK, who Clinton wanted to pattern his life after.

Ephron: Yes.

Tavis: And there's a wonderful essay in here (laugh) about your being an intern, speaking of interns, in the Kennedy White House.

Ephron: I was an intern in the Kennedy White House, I was. It was a very, well, it was a disappointing experience. I don't know how to put it.

Tavis: Disappointing because he did or did not hit on you?

Ephron: He did not hit on me, and...

Tavis: And that's why you were hurt?

Ephron: And as the years have gone by (laugh) and the evidence that he hit on virtually everyone he ever met accumulates, I'm starting to feel more and more hurt about this. And a couple of years ago, when yet another intern surfaced who had had (laugh) a thing with him, I thought well, this is ridiculous. This is...

Tavis: Of course, when I read the story, though, there was that one time that Kennedy did speak to you during your internship.

Ephron: He did speak to me. He did.

Tavis: And you couldn't hear what he was saying, 'cause he was about to catch the helicopter.

Ephron: Yes.

Tavis: Maybe he was hitting on you in that moment, and you just didn't hear him.

Ephron: No, he was not. No, no.

Tavis: Maybe that's what he was saying. Nora, I want you.

Ephron: I wish he were. I wish he had been. There's no telling what could...

Tavis: How do you know? You admit you don't know what he said, you didn't hear him. Maybe he was hitting on you.

Ephron: No, he said, 'How are you coming along?' And there was this helicopter making this terrible, huge amount of noise. And I said, 'What?' And that was it. (Laugh) That was our whole interchange, me and Jack. And I don't think that's - someone has suggested to me he was saying are you coming along?

Tavis: That's what I thought he said.

Ephron: But he wasn't.

Tavis: I thought I heard him say, are you coming along?

Ephron: I was there. He said how are you coming along? It was very sweet of him to ask. (Laugh) But wasn't the same as, you know. He was something. He was very handsome.

Tavis: You will not be disappointed. (Laugh) We gotta, we'll shoot this right quick. We gotta show the back of this book. You cannot show the front cover without - I don't think I've ever, in 15 years of doing television and radio, certainly television, I have never, ever shown, I think, the back of a book. I'm gonna make sure we reshoot this right quick so you can see the back of this book.

You can't really appreciate the book till you see the front and the back. It is the new book by Nora Ephron, (laugh) 'I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman.' There's the front, and here is the back. Nora Ephron, nice to have you on the program.

Ephron: It was great. (Laugh)

Tavis: It's good to see you.

Ephron: It was so much fun.

Tavis: Up next, a look at the history of the Black Power movement with author Peniel E. Joseph. Stay with us.