FILM 1483: WAG THE DOG

TRIVIA: 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.

During the filming of Wag the Dog (1997) Dustin Hoffman, his co-star Robert De Niro and director Barry Levinson had an impromptu meeting with President Bill Clinton at a Washington hotel. "So what's this movie about?" Clinton asked De Niro. De Niro looked over to Levinson, hoping he would answer the question. Levinson, in turn, looked over to Hoffman. Hoffman, realizing there was no one else to pass the buck to, is quoted as saying, "So I just started to tap dance. I can't even remember what I said."

"Why change horses midstream?" was originally a campaign slogan for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

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.

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.

The character of Winifred Ames was originally written for a man.

Motss' claim "there is no Academy Award for producing" is (technically) incorrect, since the Academy Award for Best Picture has always been given to the main producers of a film.

It was filmed in 28 days, during a pause in other Barry Levinson's movie, Sphere (1998).

FILM 1465: SPOTLIGHT

TRIVIA: The real Walter Robinson said: "My persona has been hijacked. If Michael Keaton robbed a bank, the police would quickly have me in handcuffs".

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2013 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

During an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air", director Tom McCarthy said that they built a large set to depict many of the Boston Globe offices where parts of the story takes place. When the reporters depicted in the movie first visited the set, they gravitated to the desks where they had been sitting during the writing of the "Spotlight" piece, and many of them started to re-arrange the items on their desks to the they had been at the time.

The one thing that Michael Keaton was afraid of when he accepted the role was the Boston accent. After watching a video footage of the real Walter Robinson he was surprised that Robinson didn't have that much of a Boston accent.

The real Michael Rezendes said "Watching Mark Ruffalo reenact five months of my life was like looking into a fun house mirror."

Tom McCarthy cited The Verdict (1982) and Sidney Lumet's style direction in that film as influence of this project.

Matt Damon was considered for the role of Michael Rezendes which went to Mark Ruffalo.

When Rachel McAdams tells Neal Huff that she will have to postpone the interviews with the survivors, a TV in the bar is broadcasting a Penn State game, and Joe Paterno appears on screen. The longtime Penn State football coach was fired in 2011 after he failed to report sexual abuse of young boys by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Paterno died of lung cancer 2 months later. On October 9, 2012, Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

Film 811: Pretty Persuasion

Trivia: When Jane Krakowski did her bra and panties scenes she asked that all crew that worked the shot be without a shirt.

Jena Malone was in the running for playing Kimberly Joyce, but was eventually beat out by Evan Rachel Wood for the role.