Courtesy Fox Searchlight

alexander payne's movie is a hit with critics. Jay Roach’s movie is just a hit. The directors of Sideways and Meet the Fockers have enjoyed major success in recent months.

Sideways, the story of two middle-aged men seeking fulfillment during a trip to wine country, was named the year’s best movie by more than a dozen film critics associations in the United States. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture. Payne, ’83, earned nominations for best director and best adapted screenplay.

Roach, ’79, directed Meet the Fockers, a sequel to 2000’s Meet the Parents, which he also directed. As of February 6, it had earned $265 million at the box office, making it the 26th-highest grossing movie of all time, and threatening Home Alone as the most successful live-action comedy in history.

Courtesy Universal

Because the films seem to have little in common, we decided to play Six Degrees of Separation to see how the two directors might be related, aside from their alma mater.

Jay Roach directed Meet the Fockers, starring Barbra Streisand
who starred in The Way We Were with Robert Redford
who starred in The Sting with Paul Newman
who starred in The Color of Money with Tom Cruise
who starred in A Few Good Men with Jack Nicholson
who starred in About Schmidt, directed by Alexander Payne.