At Italian American Gala, A Salute to Signora Robinson

There's another name? Hmm. The mind reels. This was the first interesting thing to happen here in the VIP room since Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito -- who was being honored with a Special Achievement Award for Public Service -- showed up at exactly 6 p.m. It was an impressive but unfashionably on-time arrival that required him to spend seemingly endless, lonely minutes downing clear liquid from a tall glass with a lime, surrounded by absolutely no one.

So -- the couple were asked -- what's the other name?

"Anne," Anne Hathaway said flatly.

But that's her name.

"It's the professional name," she clarified. "We're not professional with each other." Then she asked where the ladies' room was and left, only to be anxiously queried after by the publicist: "Where'd she go?"

"She went to the bathroom," Follieri answered.

"I think it's far away," the publicist worried. Someone might see her and talk to her. "Do you want me to go to her?" Follieri dispatched the publicist.

Across the room, Tom LaSorda, president and CEO of the Chrysler Group (and recipient of NIAF's Special Achievement Award in Business) was leaning toward baseball legend Tommy Lasorda and crowing, "Paisano!"

"How are you, Tom!" Lasorda interrupted his conversation with Alda and Alito -- who seemed grateful to finally have someone to talk to -- then turned back to them. "His family comes five minutes from where our family comes from."

The Alitos' charming but somewhat painful early arrival was due, he said, to the fact that "we've had a spell of rushing and being late . . . so today I said, I'm going to be on time."

And while Alito is very Italian -- his father's name was Salvatore Alati, which got Americanized in New Jersey to Samuel Alito -- and while his wife is German, their personalities are reversed, he said. She is much more Mediterranean. And he is much "more the rules follower."

But, his wife pointed out and he agreed, she is the family's timekeeper.