<P> According to Dunne, who chronicled his experiences dealing with studio executives in his book Monster: Living Off the Big Screen, the majority of these changes were made in order to appeal to a broader mainstream market . Producer Scott Rudin was reported to have said, when asked by a weary Dunne what the film was supposed to be, "it's about two movie stars ." </P> <P> The film currently holds an approval rating of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 5 / 10 . </P> <P> Critics largely ridiculed the screenplay for bearing little resemblance to the biography of Jessica Savitch, which was supposed to have inspired it . Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun - Times wrote: "Up Close and Personal is so different from the facts of Savitch's life that if Didion and Dunne still have their first draft, they probably could sell it as a completely different movie ." Anita Gates in the New York Times wrote that "it all ends up more A Star Is Born than Network ." Leonard Klady in Variety described it as "A Star Is Born meets The Way We Were, and while discerning audiences will turn their noses up, the hoi polloi are apt to embrace this unabashedly sentimental affair and send it soaring into the box office stratosphere ." </P> <P> Desson Howe in the Washington Post was extremely negative about the film: "Up Close and Personal, which was "suggested" by the Jessica Savitch biography, Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, starts out with relative promise...but then, the loooove comes through like a bad - news feed, and our marquee lovers undergo one of those unbearable montages . While an insipid, rock ballad covers the proceedings with auditory treacle, Cushion Lips (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Armchair Man (Robert Redford) walk together, laugh together, frolic in the waves with their clothes on - that sort of thing...In this movie, network executives - who depend entirely on focus groups, marketing and advertisers to inform their decisions - are painted as the moral bad guys, while Redford and the emerging Pfeiffer are the embodiment of integrity...And the fact that this is a Touchstone Pictures production - part of the marketing - obsessed, truth - sweetening Disney empire which just purchased ABC - is far too hilarious an irony to ignore ." Time Out called it a "soppy May--December romance masquerading as a deadly earnest issues movie...Blow - dried, bleached blonde - on - bland entertainment ." </P>

What is the movie up close and personal about