Trivia for
Wag the Dog (1997) More at IMDb Pro »

• After this film started production and before its release, US President Bill Clinton became involved in a sex scandal and threatened military action against Iraq.
  
  
• Dustin Hoffman based his character of Stanley Motss on Hollywood producer Robert Evans.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Barry Levinson] with his back to the camera in the opening scene at the movie studio.
  
  

• Director Trademark: [Barry Levinson] Ralph Tabakin (Southern Man) has appeared in every Levinson picture from Diner (1982) to Liberty Heights (1999).
  
  
• The political talk show at the end of the film lists its phone number as 1-(800)-555-0199. This number is also Lester Burnham's office number in the film American Beauty (1999) as well as Lowell Bergman's fax number in the film The Insider (1999)
  
  
• The character of Winifred Ames was originally written for a man.
  
  
• The talk show phone number, (800) 555-0199, is common to many films and television shows because this is the only number that has been reserved by the phone company as an allowable "fake" 800 number for media usage.
  
  
• Conrad's line, "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow," is a quote from WWII General George S. Patton.
  
  
• During the course of the movie, a joking reference is made to James Belushi as an Albanian. In fact, Belushi is the son of an Albanian immigrant.
  
  
• The scene in which shoes laced together are hanging from telephone and electric wires was shot on East Capitol Street a few blocks behind the U.S. Capitol. The production crew left several pairs of shoes behind and they remained hanging on the wires for years.
  
  
• In the funeral scene, soldiers in the military band are played by members of the Riverside Community College marching band.
  
  
• The name of Schumann's medication, "Prozalium", is a combination of Prozac and Valium.
  
  
• "Why change horses midstream?" was originally a campaign slogan for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
  
  
• Both Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman did the film for no upfront salary. Hoffman and Barry Levinson did this movie while on a break from doing Sphere (1998).
  
  

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