Updated

Nora Ephron was an essayist and screenwriter whose fixation on food, real estate and the relationships between men and women helped reinvigorate the Hollywood romantic comedy.

Ms. Ephron, who had leukemia, died Tuesday at a New York hospital at age 71, said her publishing company, Alfred A. Knopf.

She had been nominated for three Academy Awards as a screenwriter, and also directed and produced films.

"She was grave in her humor, which made it deadly, unexpected, truly funny and dauntingly intelligent," wrote the gossip columnist Liz Smith, a longtime friend, in an online remembrance.

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