. >> rose: you then go eventually to wellesley. >> yeah. >> rose: when are you at wellesley you're writing letters back to your mother. >> uh-huh. >> rose: and these letters become part of one of the plays that she wrote. >> that they wrote. >> rose: they wrote, henry and feebee. >> they wrote a play called take her, she's mine. >> rose: and what did that do to you and what did you think about that? >> well, you see, it was a play about a southern california's family worst daughter goes to an eastern women's college, at the time they were called girl's colleges. >> rose: yes, they were. and no men were allowed. >> and it was-- it was, frankly, a big nothing because-- . >> rose: it didn't bother you. >> no because we had grown-up with all this stuff. we had grown-up with my mother saying everything is copy, you know. my sister delia got her head stuck between the banister railings at our house when she was about 7 years old. and the police had to come and cut the wrote iron and get her out of it. and a year later natalie wood who was about, well i guess she was a couple years older had the

>> i married in 1955 a graduate of wellesley college. emily anne bennish. she's of czech origin. we met at a harvard wellesley mixer or jolly up, i forget how they were called quite by accident. one thing led to another. i do know this that the week after we met she told her brother that she was going to marry me. i did not learn that reality until a year later. >> what year did you marry? >> '55. >> how many children? >> three. >> where are they? >> they are here and in new york. my oldest son is a republican. and he's served in the senate. spent some time in ukraine. he volunteered for the military at one point. became a reserve officer. he was a deputy assistant secretary of defense under rumsfeld and then he resigned. my second son is a democrat. very active politically. currently engaged in the presidential campaign. he served on the clinton national security council staff. he also obtained a ph.d at oxford. my other son got an m.a. from the kennedy school at harvard. the first one went to williams, the second one went to dartmouth. my daughter is a television reporter, anch

th people of wellesley are good people. for their children and they think, great, why not, and they start overscheduling their kids. with these opportunities come expectations. >> yeah. >> the kids feel the strain of those expectations. they understand that what they're supposed to be -- what they're supposed to achieve with all they've been given is an ivy league admissions for the nescac. >> instantly. >> instantly. >> i think it's important to talk about how you wrapped this up. the sweetest stories of life come then only with the recognition that you're not special because everyone is. congratulations. good luck. make for yourself, please for your sake and ours, extraordinary lives. i think in the end if they come away with that message, that's really wonderful. >> thank you. >> if you lead an extraordinary life, if you make life beyond yourself. & >> precisely. yeah. and it's great for yourself. it feels way better to do something for someone else than something for yourself. >> you think if people listened to the whol

this is another part of her address at wellesley college in 1996. >> one of the things people alwayso you when you get upset is don't take it personally, but listen hard to what's going on in the world and i beg you to take it personally. understand this. every attack on hillary clinton for not knowing her place is an attack on you. >> that of course is also hillary's alma mater. it was when hillary was first lady. but she was very political. no question she was a political figure and saw things through that prism. the other thing about nora ephron which i find so striking, she did this in a man's world, george. how many women screenwriters, directors. she started as a journalist writing for "newsweek," then the "new york post" when women did not get those jobs, and then "esquire" and "new york" magazine came here. but breaking into film, how hard was that? >> she said she wrote a script called "my blue heaven" and she saw it and it was pretty terrible and she said i just thought i could have done it as badly as he did. and gotten the $2.5 million. so she decided to be a director and

." >> reporter: ephron graduated from wellesley college in 1962 and went to worsk a a mail girl at "newsweekin a few years her books of essays were best-sellers. >> i think writing is what i do. i think it's like breathing for me at a certain point. >> reporter:phron turned the collapsef her marriage to reporter carl bernstein of watergate fame into a novel then the movie"heartburn." >> look at all these flowerstha! and you occasionally brought me home a bunch of wilted zinnias. >> reporter: s said "marriages come and go but divorce is forever." but nora ephron was happily married for 25 years to screenwriter nicholas pileggi. thughout her career he life and family were subject matter and so was her love of food. she wrote andirected the film "julie and julia" and legendary t.v. chef julia child. >> i'm julia child, bon appetit! >> reporter: ephron kept her illness a secret but left a cluf what she'd miss when she was dead. including her kids, a walk in the park, and pie. martha teichner, cbs news, new york. >> pelley: baseball fans are still talking about a bad call in new york last night.

. >> reporter: ephron's writing career began as a mail girl at "newsweek" after graduating from wellesley in the 1960s. from there, she wrote fo"the new york post," and later "the new york times," "esquire," and finally online at "the huffington post." and while she often turned her wit on her subjects, she was noted for her openness about herself. nora ephron was 71 years old. >> actresses such as carrie fisher and meg ryan said they enjoyed working with ephron because she understood them more than male directors. nora ephron is survived by her third husband and two children. we'll take a quick break on the "morning news" on a wednesday morning. >>> when we come back, drowning in debt. stockton, california, set to become the second u.s. city to ever declare bankruptcy. this is the "cbs morning news." [ lane ] your anti-wrinkle cream is gone... but what about your wrinkles? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. its retinol formula visibly reduces wrinkles in one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®. begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four

the uri, you didn't go to uri, though, you went to wellesley. then you went on from there to where? >> oxford. university. >> how many years were you there? >> one. >> what did you study? >> theology. >> then where did you go? >> i went to new jersey. >> and what did you study there? >> at princeton i studied the origins and history of ancient christianity. >> you taught in a number of institutions. would you list those for us? >> i taught at princeton briefly, i taught at u.c. berkeley, university of pittsburgh, for a year i was at the hebrew university at jerusalem and currently at boston unive >> you have? >> yes, indeed. >> i got my degree in '79. >> you're the professor of the appreciation of scripture, you've been doing that for what? >> since '90. >> for nine years. three books to your credit? >> that's true. >> i notice that you retreated from some of your statements from your first book, "jesus of nazareth, king of the jews." what changed in the 11 years between the publication of these two books. >> my first book was "from jesus to chr

he is a veteran english teacher at wellesley high school and david mccollough junior son of the historianuthor. as we found out talking to him about it this weekend his message to the kids he loves was about a lot more. >> each of you is dressed you will notice exactly the same. and your diploma, but for your name, exactly the same. all of this is as it should be because none of you is special. >> i wanted to give these kids whom i know well and care very much about something useful. you are not special. you're not exceptional. contrary to what your u-9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card despite every assurance of a corps atlanta purple dinosaur that nice mr. rodgers and your batty aunt sylvia, no matter how often your paternal caped crusader has swooped tine save you you are nothing special. >> i perhaps naively had no idea that the entire electronic world was eavesdropping. >> if everyone gets a trophy trophies become meaningless. we have of lately, americans to our detriment come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. >> kids have to stumble they s

. >> he teaches at wellesley high school in massachusetts, instead offering congratulations, he challenged graduates to late selfless lives. >> and consider for a moment the bigger picture, your planet i'll remind you is not the center of the solar system. the system is not the center of the galaxy. in fax, astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center, therefore you cannot be it. the fulfilling life, the distinct i have life, the relevant life is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you're a nice person, or mommy ordered it from the caterer. >> ouch, yeah. >> he's been a teacher for 26 years. he says reaction has been overwhelmingly positive with the exception of people who have taken some of his remarks out of the context. >> he is the son of pulitzer prize-wins historic david mccullough. >> lady gaga is on the mend. there it was after one of hurl dancers accidentally hit her on the head with a prop while performing last night in new zeala zealand. >>> she didn't some is a beat. she sang another 16 songs. on twitter her makeup artist confirmed she doe

on wellesley school websites there are comments like, quote, i love this expenditurspeech, i.ong with that? i graduated in 1976. this was a fantastic message and in 20 years they'll understand it. mccullough's speech hit a nerve. nearly half a million hits on youtube. the school's website had to cut off comments to prevent it from crashing. maybe it's the perfect message to send kids goichlk out in the harsh world. hey, not only are you not special, they may not even hire you. but mccullough said his speech wasn't meant to be a downer. the sweetest joy in life is recognizing that you're not special because everyone is. the talkback today, why does the "you're not special" speech resonate. >> i'll read your comments later this hour. >>> jc penney's effort to get hippy shoppers. ♪ ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express. ♪ it says a lot about you. ♪ in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. guts. glory. ram. >>> frumpy and proud. that's what some jc penney loyalists are saying about the store's attempt

. >> and you attended this ceremony not just as a member of the wellesley staff but also as a parent.i'm curious how your child and the rest of the audience reacted to being told you're not special. >> my son graduated from a different high school two days later, although i did write it with him, of course, well in mind. in fact, i wrote it in a hotel room in new jersey at a soccer tournament with my 16-year-old daughter, and so i am like the parents i was speaking about. my children are like the children i was speaking to, and i was emphasizing, i hope, the notion of equality, that everybody matters. i learned early in my marriage that one does not disagree with a smart armenian, and when i returned to william sa roy and a version of everyone is the same as you, particularly affluent kids, i think they have a spoumt to do some good and not just position themselves for luxury and materialism and ease. >> i love one of the things you said. resist the easy comfortnd and glitter of materialism. but while the media has seized on the one famous line where you said you're not special. you a

>> you know, i did along with alec sulkin and wellesley wild who are two brilliant guys i've worked withl over all of the papers. he'd probably be on this show. people would probably be worshiping him, but then, eventually it would kind of wear off and people would say, "well, you know, who cares? i'm over it." and that's where this movie picks up. >> jimmy: it's -- yeah, exactly. and i gotta say the cgi is fantastic. >> yes. yeah, we had two -- tippett and iloura, our two effects houses, just knocked this thing out of the park. >> jimmy: crazy like how it was a movie. like, he actually is -- like, it's so weird. i'm like, oh, my gosh. it's fantastic. was that you -- was that like mark wahlberg acting with, like, a tennis ball or -- >> it was -- it was -- >> jimmy: how do you do that? [ light laughter ] you have to look at something. >> it was mark wahlberg either acting to empty space or we would put a little stick with, like, little eyeballs on it for him to -- [ light laughter ] >> jimmy: yeah, for him to look at. >> and it gives you a sense of how good he is. he was giving everything

nora ephron graduated from wellesley college in 1962.n went to work as a mail girl at "newsweek." not for long. soon she was writing for magazines, collections of her essays back best sellers. she took her parents' advice and turned her ugly divorce from carl berstein of watergate fame thinly disguyed about about to a novel. and then the movie heartburn. >> look at all these flowers that you bought for her. >> it was the defining fact of your life if you are divorced and have kids with the person that you're divorced from. and that just seemed like something worth seeing. >> reporter: she was happily married to screen writer nicholas pilegi for 25 years. aging was a subject she didn't like, but spent much of her time in recent years contemplating. when she wrote and directed the film julie and julia about julia childs, this is what struck her. >> and julia seemed so ageless really. she didn't become julia child until she was 50 years old. >> reporter: she could joke in print about her sagging neck, her fading memory. how very nora ephron

that's a wellesley high school teacher david mccullough jr. students all the coddling and praise they've become used to will not last. it brings us right to steve perry. did you like his commencement address? you can see it on line, by the way. >> i didn't like it. i loved it. it's essential. because we project too much time projecting our own insecurities onto our children. what the parents are doing is overcompensating for things they didn't get. they make rules like no dribble basketball or no score soccer so no one feels bad and any time someone feels bad, the world is supposed to stop to make them feel better. what you know in life is there are two ways to make it. you can make a living or you can make a live which is how you change lives. too many people are making a living and not changing lives. >> i agr agree. i absolutely positively agree with you. but is a graduation the place to have a tough love conversation? i think that's sort of a k-12 conversation. the last day when you're sending them out, you say they're not special? >> abso

in a commencement address in 1996 at wellesley college, she recalled that women of her generation weren'tected to do much of anything, but she wound up having several careers simultaneously, all of them successful. ephron died at new york presbyterian hospital. she was 71 years old. heather? heather: she will be missed. thank you very much, julie banderas, reporting live for us. bill: go to foxnews.com, and we posted a number of her films that are -- heather: what's your favorite one? bill: well, of the list here you have when harry met sally, sleepless in seattle, you've got mail, but i think when harry met sally is probably some of the funniest lines i've ever heard in my life. heather: yeah, lots of funny lines. sleepless in seattle. bill: that was back when aol was huge. heather: yes. bill: bombshell accusations from arizona lawmakers that the obama administration has it in for their state. listen. >> greta, it's unimaginable that janet napolitano didn't drive this train, and it's almost unimaginable that she did not consult with the white house in both the political ramifications bec

wellesley, that's where she graduated from many years ago. will she run in 2016?r governor of pennsylvania, ed rendell and her husband simself have said, they're not 100% writing it off. she pretty much said she will never run again for public office. but maybe in 2016 she will once again be considering it. stay tune. this is something we talk about all the time. we'll be talking about it again for a long time. >> it says clinton shook her head multiple times. as the cheers grew, hey, you never know. that was the gesture that supposedly she had. so you never know. >> everybody buzzes about this story line. >> we love it. paulhauser live in washington. thank you. >> thank you. >>> jesse ventura wants to do away with political parties and says people who run them are nothing more than thugs in brooks brothers suits. you're not going to want to miss that. howard schultz, the ceo of starbucks joins us. he's on a mission to create american jobs. we'll ask him about president obama's comment that the private sector is doing fine. >>> an online community is banding toget

. >> reporter: the wellesley high school english teacher downplaying this rite of passage, he says, toour detriment come to love accolades more than genuine achievement the the relevant life is an achievement. not something that falls into your lap because you're a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer. >> reporter: his words were hailed online with comments calling it best commencement speech ever. and another calling him my new hero. a stand-out speech that in the end put a new twist on an old theme. >> dream big. work hard. think for yourself. love everything you love, everyone you love with all your might. >> reporter: for "today," michelle franzen, nbc news, new york. >> wonder how the class accepted that speech. >> nice sobering speech right there. >>> up next on "today," a really special kid. he's a 15-year-old who risked his life to warn his neighbors about a fire. i have never encountered such a burning sensation... until i had the shingles. it was like a red rash. like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. it's so

she moved to new york the day after she graduated from wellesley.ed a job and told women are allowed to write at news week. she wrote a great essay starting in the 70s. she wrote about coming to new york and thinking it never occurred to her to say you will be wrong with me. she said okay. she got to new york and moved into the apartment on sullivan street and the day she moved in, there was an italian festival going on. she said she thought it was great. she thought it was permanent and she would have all the cotton candy she wanted to eat the rest of her life. she was going to move out within a few days. you think about the stories in the books and the plays. you never want to in any way say anything -- you can't say enough about when harry met sale. you think about the genre of romantic comedy. a huge piece of the movie business. it's almost the defining movie and the ultimate in some ways. whenever good fellahs come along, you refuse to watch good fellahs. you can't watch that movie enough times. the writing is so beautiful and so true and so fu