Can we all forget Fockers in time for Cannes?

Robert De Niro, once universally regarded as the greatest screen actor of his generation, has been given the honour of heading the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, when it opens on the French Riviera on May 11.

He will preside over the choice of this year's Palme d'Or winner - a prize two of his own films have deservedly collected down the years, Taxi Driver in 1976 and The Mission a decade later.

De Niro, 67, is suitably humbled. "I know this isn't an easy task for me or my fellow jury members," he said, "but I'm very honoured and happy to head the jury for this year's Cannes Film Festival."

The only shame is that the prestigious honour should come just as De Niro is reeling from the worst film reviews of his life. Somehow, the star of Godfather II, Goodfellas and Raging Bull, to name but three of his masterclass performances, has found himself starring in the third and most dreadful of the 'Focker franchise'.

The franchise began well enough with Meet the Parents in 2000. De Niro went totally over the top as the barking father-in-law Jack Byrnes, but it was a very funny film and everyone forgave him.

Then came Meet the Fockers (Focker being the surname of his son-in-law, played by Ben Stiller) when the joke began to wear thin, and now there's Little Fockers, a truly awful film which has had many film critics virtually retching.

"Robert De Niro... plays his character with such unenthusiastic boredom," said the San Jose Examiner, "that at times it is hard to remember that this man has won Oscars and is considered one of the best actors of all time."

Many cinema-goers who saw Little Fockers over Christmas will be praying that the suitably named Bob Grimm of the Reno News has it right when he says: "Little Fockers, a bunch of dick jokes and violent episodes mashed together and marketed as a movie, will probably be the franchise's swan song."

Needless to say, everyone concerned is laughing all the way to the bank - De Niro and Stiller each getting $20m for their parts in the fiasco and the wily Dustin Hoffman apparently picking up $7.5 for reprising his cameo as Stiller's dad.

Just don't mention it if you happen to be in Cannes this May. ·