Several times in the course of Wallflower at the Orgy, a collection of magazine articles, Nora Ephron captures the true spirit of the popular arts in America perfectly. It is a spirit that grows from the heart of The People. The media didn't need to invent it, for it reflects profound longings, anxieties, and dreams, the most pernicious neuroses of capitalism; the media merely nourish it….

Ephron is at her best when probing and exposing the masscult sensibility, for she brings to the subject just the right combination of camp playfulness and shrewd intelligence. She's dismayed, but not despairing. And she can make good fun of her own role in the masscult-midcult madness…. Unfortunately, several of the pieces are so light that they almost float away, and the interview with Mike Nichols, while interesting, is patently self-indulgent. (p. 45)

Ephron's articles [in Wallflower at the Orgy] consist of entertainingly sophisticated, tongue-in-cheek profiles, sketches, and comments on the popular cultural scene and certain big names of gourmet cookbook and television fame, in show business, the publishing and best seller world, high fashion, and other profitable mass culture areas. Ayn Rand, Helen Gurley Brown, Arthur Frommer, and Bill Blass are among names gaily bandied about in Ephron's amusing social commentary.