‘Meet the Fockers’ cast is worth its weight in gold

One of the big movies this Christmas season features a cast whose resumes include enough awards gold to fill a wing at Fort Knox. But it’s not Martin Scorsese’s epic biopic “The Aviator” or Michael Radford’s version of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.”

Instead, this stellar group of thespians can be found in a raucous comedy, “Meet the Fockers,” complete with a toilet-flushing cat, that opens Wednesday. The sequel to the 2000 hit “Meet the Parents” has Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo from the original cast and adds Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand as the laid-back Fockers.

The awards pedigree is extraordinary. De Niro won the best supporting actor Oscar for 1974’s “The Godfather, Part II” and then the best actor award for 1980’s “Raging Bull,” which also earned him a Golden Globe.

Hoffman is also a two-time Oscar winner, picking up best actor awards for 1979’s “Kramer vs. Kramer” and 1988’s “Rain Man.” He received an Emmy in 1985 for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or special for “Death of a Salesman,” and he won Golden Globes for “Kramer” and “Rain Man” -- and the Globe for most promising newcomer for 1967’s “The Graduate.”

Stiller picked up an Emmy too as one of the writers on his 1992-93 Fox comedy-variety series, “The Ben Stiller Show.” He won MTV Movie Awards for best comedic performance (“Meet the Parents”) and best fight (“There’s Something About Mary”). He took home the 2002 Teen Choice Award for his hissy fit in “Zoolander.”

Danner won a Tony in 1970 for “Butterflies Are Free.” (She’s also the mother of Gwyneth Paltrow, 1998 best actress Oscar winner for “Shakespeare in Love.”)

Streisand, though, wins the awards derby hands down. She received the best actress Oscar for her film debut in 1968’s “Funny Girl” and picked up another Academy Award for co-writing the 1976 best song, “Evergreen” (from her film “A Star Is Born”). She’s won four Emmys for her concert specials; a special Tony Award in 1970; is the only female to be awarded a Golden Globe for directing (for 1983’s “Yentl”) and picked up seven more Golden Globes for acting, producing and composing. Since 1963, she’s won eight Grammy Awards, plus the Legend Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

*

-- Susan King