Wag the Dog is a 1997 black comedy film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, co-starring Anne Heche, Denis Leary and William H. Macy about a Washington spin doctor who, merely days before a presidential election, distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer to construct a fake war with Albania. The scheme enlists the aid of a country music singer, who creates several theme songs for the war; a "fad king"; and a costume designer, who helps create a fictional special forces unit to fight the war's supposed battles. The title of the film comes from an... idiomatic English-language expression "the tail wagging the dog", which is commented at the beginning of the film by a caption that reads: Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog. Wag the Dog was produced and directed by Barry Levinson. The screenplay was credited to Hilary Henkin and David Mamet and is based on the novel American Hero by Larry Beinhart, however, the film differs greatly from the book. In the book, the president is specifically George H. W.
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