We were sitting in a booth at Musso's. Outside it was drizzling. Inside, Pat Caddell was telling a story. This particular story had to do with the deep and visceral connection between Hollywood and Washington, D.C.
Caddell, you may recall, gained fame as the ridiculously young pollster for Jimmy Carter during the 1976 campaign, when the former Georgia governor, against all odds, won the presidency. Just days after the election, it seems, Carter decided to take his first tour of the White House and invited Caddell and media guru Gerald Rafshoon to trail along.
"So we are going from room to room, just looking around in wonder," said Caddell. "And suddenly the president says, 'You know, there's a movie theater in here somewhere. And Hollywood will send us any movie we want to see. What should we watch?' "
"Rafshoon thinks about it and suggests 'Rocky.' The president, who knows nothing about movies, says, 'What's it about?'
"And Rafshoon looks at Carter and says, 'It's about you, Mr. President.' "
Caddell pauses in his story. "That's the moment when it hit me. The connection. I saw that Hollywood and Washington were in the exact same business."
It's an old connection. But from time to time, speculation over its nature and depth seizes hold of the two cities. Now is such a time. On this side of the continent, it's hard to find an industry type who doesn't want to talk about it.
The ferment is being driven largely by "Wag the Dog," the wicked, hilarious movie built on the proposition that Hollywood moguls and elected presidents are interchangeable parts.
"The movie describes the state of the art in regards to the connection," said Tom Pollack, former studio chief at Universal and now chairman of the American Film Institute. "Maybe it presents an exaggerated truth. But it's the truth nonetheless."
"Wag the Dog" opens with an unnamed and unseen president acquiring what you might call a media relations problem. He is accused of letting his hands wander during an official visit by a group of underage girls. What's worse, election night is only 11 days away.
Not to worry. Robert De Niro, playing a Dick Morris-type presidential fixer, issues a barrage of diversionary leaks and then jets out to Hollywood to arrange the final solution: the staging of a fake war.
De Niro finds the proper producer, played by Dustin Hoffman, and explains his wants. "It's like a pageant," De Niro says. "Like the Oscars."
