Ephron first conceived of this story in 1999 as an
HBO movie. Ephron focused the story on the career of New York City tabloid columnist Mike McAlary from his early beginnings to his rise to stardom, when he received the 1998
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for exposing police brutality against a Haitian immigrant named
Abner Louima in Brooklyn's 70th precinct, and his death, eight months later, of cancer. She once wrote, "I can’t remember which came first—wanting to be a journalist or wanting to date a journalist"; she had a thing for journalists like McAlary. Since McAlary died of cancer and Ephron had spent her six years with cancer by directing a film and writing two plays, Chris Jones of the
Chicago Tribune speculates that Ephron chose this subject because she shared a bond with a journalist who "also did some of his best writing while battling cancer". Ephron began background interviews with McAlary's colleagues, including
Jim Dwyer, in the months after McAlary's Christmas 1998 death. In 2005, the film idea was floated again, but Ephron said she could not get her preferred leading actor. Hanks had previously starred in Ephron's popular films,
Sleepless in Seattle and ''
You've Got Mail'', but he had last performed live in the theatre in 1979 for
Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of
The Mandrake. The play is the final and posthumous work of Ephron, who died the year before its production.
Gabriel Rotello blogged about McAlary in
The Huffington Post after hearing about the play. He noted that McAlary represented a lot of things to a lot of people, but as the first openly gay columnist, Rotello viewed McAlary unfavorably. According to Rotello, McAlary was an aggressive journalist who had a reputation for reporting on corrupt cops and miscreants in New York City's crack era. He relied heavily on police sources, hanging out with then-
New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton and his mouthpiece, John Miller. His career was built on high-level access rather than using street sources and fact-corroboration. He became prominent in the public eye in spring 1994 when a black lesbian reported that she had been raped in broad daylight in Brooklyn's
Prospect Park. McAlary's report, "Rape Hoax the Real Crime", alleged that the woman had concocted the story, intending to use it for political purposes such as speaking at lesbian rallies. New York had recently endured the
Tawana Brawley rape allegations, and gaybashing was at its apex. The police then revealed substantial evidence in support of the woman's story and Rotello, who was then with
New York Newsday, got Miller on tape saying that McAlary was begging his police contacts to back him up. McAlary lost credibility with the police and the gay community. Rotello concedes, however, that McAlary later had major success. ==Plot==