Wag the Dog

Wag the Dog (1998) is a film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro about a president who distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood producer to fake a war. The shameless and ruthless scheme enlists the musical talents of Willie Nelson who creates a disgustingly noble theme song. When the producer (Dustin Hoffman's character) becomes so enthralled with the success of his "war" and wants to get credit for it, the DeNiro character has him murdered to protect the secret.

The title of this movie is a truncation of the phrase "the tail that wags the dog," which refers to a small event (in this case the sex scandal) which ends up influencing a much larger, supposedly dominant institution (the presidency).