Close up and personal

Posted by Smokey Stover on January 11, 2006

In Reply to: Close up and personal posted by Yannick Schepens on January 09, 2006

: close up and personal (as in "he hasn't been seen in his cups close up and personal).
: What's "close up and personal" mean here?

The phrase is a parody of a famous sports phrase, used heavily by--I think--ABC sports, on TV, to indicate a special mini-biography of one of the contestants in a televised sports event, always with a lot of pictures, sometimes (I think) with a mini-interview. I remember it primarily from the Olympics and from various ice skating events. The phrase was heard so often that it has been easy to mimic as meaning any close scrutiny of a person. "Up close and personal George turns out to be even more of a rat than he already seemed."