<Li> Chris Connelly as Academy Awards Arrivals M.C. </Li> <Li> Debbie Reynolds as herself </Li> <P> Being Lawrence Kasdan's first screenplay, the film was originally proposed in 1976 with Steve McQueen and Diana Ross in the leads, but the project stalled . Later, in 1979, Ryan O'Neal and Diana Ross were set to star as the leads, but again, production was put on hold and the script became stuck in "development hell", before being finally released in 1992 . </P> <P> The Bodyguard received mixed to negative reviews from film critics . As of February 2018, the film holds a 35% rating on the film aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus, "The Bodyguard is a cheesy, melodramatic potboiler with occasional moments of electricity from Whitney Houston ." It received seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations, including Worst Picture . Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly reviewed the film negatively, stating, "To say that Houston and Costner fail to strike sparks would be putting it mildly ." He added that "the movie gives us these two self - contained celebrity icons working hard to look as if they want each other . It's like watching two statues attempting to mate ." Other critics were more mixed or positive, including Roger Ebert, who praised the film and gave it three out of four stars, remarking, "The movie does contain a love story, but it's the kind of guarded passion that grows between two people who spend a lot of time keeping their priorities straight ." </P>

Who played the creepy guy in the bodyguard