For lying, Klein was politely dumped by CBS and soon left Newsweek. But infamy has its rewards: The New Yorker editor, Tina Brown, wife of then Random House president Harold Evans, offered Klein the magazine's prestigious "Letter from Washington" column.

In August, Nichols closed a deal with Universal. "They were really hot for it," he recalls. So hot, that the studio agreed to reimburse Nichols, plus pay him a reported $8.5 million (and a share of profits) to produce and direct the film. Primary Colors would be scripted into mainstream fair by Elaine May -- Nichols longtime collaborator - who had adapted The Birdcage, Nichols $124 million box-office hit. The film would star Tom Hanks as the candidate and Emma Thompson as his wife.

It was clear from the get-go that Nichols wasn't going to lampoon anyone. For starters, he and May had performed their famous comedy routine at Clinton's first major Hollywood fund-raiser during the '92 campaign. Nichols and his wife, ABC's Diane Sawyer, were on the president's A list for summer barbecues on Martha's Vineyard, and he was friendly with Stephanopoulos and former campaign media consultant Mandy Grunwald. When Nichols started thinking about the movie, he had lunch with Stephanopoulos and began written and verbal correspondence with senior presidential aide Rahm Emanuel. "We were interested in each other's work," Nichols tactfully explains.

He asked former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers to work on the film, as she had on Contact, coordinating the media cameos of Larry King, Geraldo Rivera, and others. "She considered it, and then said she thought it would look funny with her having been in the campaign and in the White House," Nichols says. "I'm surprised she considered it, but she did."

For Nichols, the Clinton connection was the starting point for a more sweeping film. "No one wants a Saturday Night Live sketch," Nichols says. "There is this sizzle about the Clintons, and it's disingenuous to pretend it's not there" -- he pauses -- "but I think we have to make it clear that the movie is fiction."