In Hollywood, screenwriters are a curse to be borne, and beating up on them is an industry bloodsport. In this account of life on the Hollywood food chain, it's a screenwriter who gets the last murderous laugh. In 1998 novelist and journalist John Gregory Dunne and his wife, Joan Didion, were asked to write a screenplay about the dark and complicated life of the late TV anchorwomen Jessica Savitch. Eight years and twenty-seven drafts later the script wast turned into the fairy tale Up Close and Personal, starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer.