Nora Ephron came of age three decades after Child, in a house “full of apples and peaches and milk,” in Beverly Hills. We might never have heard of hollandaise. Who knows who she would have been if she’d come out delicate and married a Republican banker, as her father had expected. “It was a handicap of sorts, certainly in the world into which she was born, in Pasadena, where women went East to school to get a husband.” Julia Child, whose epic contribution to American culture was “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” was a sensuous giant. “It was a real unusual thing for a woman to be that height, and I think it had an enormous impact,” Streep said. Child’s tallness was crucial to Streep as she developed the character. In Nora Ephron’s new movie, “Julie & Julia,” Streep plays Julia Child-the looming emissary of French cooking, who, upon arriving for the first time at Le Havre, as a “six-foot-two-inch, thirty-six-year-old, rather loud and unserious Californian,” feared that France was a nation “where the women were all dainty, exquisitely coiffed, nasty little creatures,” as Child wrote in her memoir. “I mean, it’s like having a clubfoot!” is how Meryl Streep puts it. If you are over six feet tall, solidly built, and female, your height is not a detail. It’s so daunting what he did.” Photograph by Ruven Afanador Ephron reveres classic romantic comedies: “Look at Lubitsch.
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