Read Online When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron - Free Book Online Page B

right, you’re right, I know you’re right.
    CUT TO :
    EXT. WEST BROADWAY, NEAR RESTAURANT—NIGHT

Harry and his friend Jess coming down the street
.
    JESS     I don’t know about this.
    HARRY     It’s just a dinner.
    JESS     You know, I’ve finally gotten to a place in my life where I’m comfortable with the fact that it’s just me and my work.
(they walk on)
If she’s so great, why aren’t
you
taking her out?
    HARRY     How many times do I have to tell you, we’re just friends.
    JESS     So you’re saying she’s not that attractive?
    HARRY     No, I told you she is attractive.
    JESS     But you also said she had a good personality.
    HARRY     She has a good personality.
    Jess makes a “precisely my point” gesture
.
    HARRY     ( CONT’D )    What?
    JESS     When someone’s not attractive, they’re always described as having a good personality.
    HARRY     Look. If you had asked me what does she look like and I said, she has a good personality,
that
means she’s not attractive. But just because I happen to mention she has a good personality, she could be either. She could be attractive with a good personality, or not attractive with a good personality.
    JESS     So which one is she?
    HARRY     Attractive.
    JESS     But not beautiful, right?
    Harry glares at him
.
    CUT TO:
    INT. RESTAURANT—NIGHT

Harry, Jess, Sally, and Marie at a table. A waiter has just brought them drinks. It is clear from the arrangement at the table that Harry is meant to be with Marie and Jess is meant to be with Sally. Jess and Sally are talking to each other, while Harry and Marie carry on their own conversation
.
    JESS     
(to Sally)
    It’s like whenever I read Jimmy Breslin, it’s as if he’s leaving some kind of wake-up call for the city of New York.
    SALLY     What do you mean by a wake-up call?
    They continue talking as we now focus on Harry and Marie’s conversation:
    HARRY     Would I have seen any of your windows?
    MARIE     Well, just a couple of weeks ago, I did a thing with hostages.
    HARRY     Oh, the thing with people in blindfolds.
    Back to Jess and Sally, who obviously is not enjoying or agreeing with what he is saying
.
    SALLY     
(to Jess)
    Uh, let’s just say I’m … I’m really not a big fan of Jimmy Breslin.
    JESS     Well, he’s the reason I became a writer, but that’s not important.
    A little pause
.
    SALLY     Harry, you and Marie are both from New Jersey.
    MARIE     Really?
    HARRY     Where are you from?
    MARIE     South Orange.
    HARRY     Haddonfield.
    MARIE     Oh.
    They all look at each other
.
    Then they look at their menus
.
    HARRY     So what are we going to order?
    SALLY     I’m going to start with the grilled radicchio.
    HARRY     Jess, Sally is a great orderer. Not only does she always pick the best thing on the menu, but she orders it in a way that even the chef didn’t know how good it would be.
    Sally shoots Harry a look
.
    JESS     I think restaurants have become too important.
    MARIE     Oh, I agree. “Restaurants are to people in the eighties what theater was to people in the sixties.” I read that in a magazine.
    JESS     I wrote that.
    MARIE     Get outta here.
    JESS     No, I did. I wrote that.
    MARIE     I never quoted anything from a magazine in my life. That’s amazing. Don’t you think that’s amazing? And you wrote it?
    JESS     I also wrote, “Pesto is the quiche of the