Wag the Dog is a 1997 film starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman 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.

Wag the Dog was produced and directed by Barry Levinson. The screenplay was credited to Hilary Henkin and David Mamet. The film is based on the novel American Hero by Larry Beinhart. The book differs greatly from the picture. In the book, the president is specifically George H. W. Bush (in the movie he is unnamed), the fake war operation is explicitly Desert Storm, and the war actually occurs, instead of being entirely falsified.www.amazon.com/American-Hero-Larry-Beinhart/dp/0345366638

Plot

When an unnamed President of the United States is caught in a closed room with a young girl scout less than two weeks before re-election, a hired political gun (played by Robert DeNiro) is brought in to try and take the public attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a fake war with Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this instead. In order to come up with his 'war', he contacts a Hollywood producer (Hoffman), who brings in a series of specialists who help construct a theme song, build up interest and fake some footage of an orphan in Albania.