NATIONAL ITALIAN AMERICAN FOUNDATION GALA WEEKEND

October 19 and 20 · Washington Hilton and Towers

BY JANET DONOVAN
PHOTOS BY PAUL SIMKIN

Anna Maria Louisa Italiano. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. Anne Bancroft will always be remembered as every young man's fantasy for seducing Dustin Hoff man in The Graduate. Posthumously inducted into the NAIF Hall of Fame at their 31st Anniversary Gala, the award was presented by Alan Alda and accepted by her husband Mel Brooks.
"We were married for 41 years", said Brooks. "We fought every day and made up every night. One of the great make-ups produced my son Max Brooks." "When they asked me to speak tonight they said 'be short': I said - you're confusing me with Jack Valenti."
"I am glad to give this to you, despite the fact that your family is from Calabria and mine is from Sicily," said Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia when presenting the Public Service Award to fellow justice Samuel Ailito Jr. Referring to the unforeseen opportunities in America, Alito joked "Many years ago someone told Yogi Berra that a Jewish man had been elected as mayor of Dublin, Ireland." Yogi's response? "Only in America."
More VIP's walked the red carpet than there are coliseums in Rome, including Tommy LaSorda, Vic Damone, Anne Hathaway, Neil Sedaka, Gina Lollobrigida and Nancy Pelosi.
Award recipient music icon Frankie Valli took the audience down memory lane. "I can still hear my father when I told him I wanted to be a singer. He said, 'What kind of work is that?'" What a Night!

Jack Valenti, Jan Smith and Sam Donaldson	Franco Nuschese with Catherine Reynolds and Antonin Scalia

Tommy Lasorda, Samuel Alito and Alan Alda	Silvestro and Linda Conte

Max Brooks and Mel Brooks	President George W. Bush

Tania Pava and Jennifer Berry	Ann Hathaway and Raff aello Follieri

Gina Lollobrigida	Antonin Scalia

Jerry Valli and Frankie Valli	Giulio Tempesta, Cindy Hayes and Joseph Cerrell

Italian Amb. Giovanni Castellaneta and Leila Castellaneta