Wag the Dog /

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.