nora ephron, with whom she collaborated on "cookie", was seen as a role model by seidelman, as a woman writer and director able to combine family life with a successful film career. among contemporaries, seidelman notes the cerebral stories of the coen brothers, mid-career woody allen, early martin scorsese, and the films of jane campion are all favorites. she has said she is drawn to directors with distinct, slightly "outsider" points of view.