TMS Muse of the Week: Nancy Meyers

(Paramount Pictures)

One success story that sounds tailor made for a fictionalized Hollywood production is the divorce of former screenwriting partners Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers. Part of why I don’t think this story has been told on screen yet is because it would actually be a little bit of art imitating already existing art. After Charles & Nancy broke through their careers with an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay [co-nominated with Harvey Miller] for Howard Zieff’s hit military comedy Private Benjamin (1980), their next project was the divorce themed dramedy Irreconcilable Differences (1984). The film was not only co-written by the couple, but directed by Charlie this time, though the reception was a bit more modest compared to the Goldie Hawn vehicle previously. To movie history buffs and those working in the film industry, Irreconcilable Differences was quite transparently inspired by the marriage and divorce of writer-director Peter Bogdanovich and production designer Polly Platt. One of Peter’s favorite lead actors, Ryan O’Neal, was even the male lead in Differences. The tale is of a successful filmmaker [Ryan] who’s career never recovers after separating from his equally talented, yet unknown, wife [Shelley Long]. Meanwhile, the wife discovers she’s actually a good writer and sells a lot of books writing about her life and marriage. A post-ET Drew Barrymore also plays their precocious and cute adolescent daughter.

If you take a couple of quick reads over Charlie’s and Nancy’s Wiki and IMDb pages, you’ll see this is actually not far off from what ended up happening with this pair’s careers as well. Throughout the 1980s and up to the late 1990s, Charlie & Nancy penned popular romcoms such as Baby Boom (1987) with Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard and the Father of the Bride remakes (1991-95) starring Steve Martin and Diane, with Charlie usually directing. The duo also reunited with Harvey and Goldie on Herbert Ross’ Protocol (1984). In 1998, Nancy made her directorial debut with the Shyer-Meyers scripted remake of Disney’s The Parent Trap (1998), and only a year later the couple separated. As movie fans know, Nancy went on to be one of the most profitable female filmmakers in cinema with what are essentially romcoms for older people. What Women Want (2000) with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, Something’s Gotta Give (2003) with Jack Nicholson and Nancy’s fave on-screen alter ego, Diane, yet again, and It’s Complicated (2009) starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. Along with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swapping houses in the popular Christmas romcom The Holiday (2006) and Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway in the cross-generational comedy The Intern (2015), Nancy picked up right where fellow romcom queen Nora Ephron left off. Charles on the other hand, only made two flops in The Affair of the Necklace (2001) and a remake of Alfie (2004) and a straight-to-Netflix Christmas movie, The Noel Diary, just this year since the divorce.

(Sandollar Productions)

Maybe I’m mean, but the huge drop off in Charlie’s output just looks so amusing to me, especially considering he was the one directing when he and Nancy started writing screenplays. Makes you wonder who was the one really pulling the quality out of those cinematic stories. Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any longterm or public animosity between the former spouses and their daughters Hallie and Annie [yes, Nancy named the twins in the updated Parent Trap after her own kids]. Who knows, since Charlie grew up in Hollywood as Directors Guild of America co-founder Melville Shyer’s son, maybe he didn’t mind taking the backseat after parting with Nancy. Whatever the case, a lot more people in 2022 know the name Nancy Meyers than Charles Shyer.

Based on the backstories of her own female protagonists, Nancy probably chose to be friendly with her ex in the long run for their children’s sake, but there might have been some bitterness at one point too. While that bitterness could have overridden the tone of her work, she still manages to exude the light-hearted and feel-good tones to her signature casual upper class aesthetic through main characters played by Diane, Meryl, Kate or Anne. True, Nancy’s always had accusations of being out of touch, pandering to high society and possibly endorsing white feminism. Her favorite clothing item is probably a white turtleneck and she might know what it’s like to hold a glass of wine while lounging on a beach house patio. But you know what, I’d rather someone be upfront about their leanings than pussyfoot around them. Her movies cater to a certain demographic and it’s been working for her for over 40 years. I grew up with the 1998 Parent Trap just as much as David Swift’s original from 1961 and I enjoy all of Nancy’s movies featuring my young adulthood idol that is Ms. Keaton. Nancy made some good films with her ex-husband and some just as good on her own, and that’s something to toast to.