EW JERSEY’S ill-famed Mafia family, The Sopranos of HBO notoriety, blasted their way into Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl benefit gala at Chelsea Pier 60 on New York’s West Side. The five cast members caused a lovefest pandemonium. Everyone wanted pictures with the cast of TV’s most recent smash hit.
A bewhiskered James Gandolfini (who plays the boss Tony Soprano) came with a crew that included Edie Falco (his wife Carmela on the show), Lorraine Bracco (his psychiatrist Dr. Melfi), Michael Imperioli (his nephew Christopher) and Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior).
"I’m a great fan of these people," said Jon Voight, who served as event chair with Jody Durst. "It’s impossible to have that energy last for eight years."
"I had the pleasure of growing up in a Jewish neighborhood," said Bracco, who was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and raised in Hicksville, L.I.
"I was the only Italian. I learned to get along with everyone. Everyone in the neighborhood embraced me – even the rabbi.
"On Rosh Hashanah the school bus came and nobody was on it. Next time the bus came I said, okay, I’m going to temple."
As a new mother with an adopted son, Falco said her vantage point has changed. "Everything is on your kids," she said in explaining why she came to support Chabad’s efforts in treating 2,495 children stricken by the Chernobyl radiation fallout.
The fundraising dinner attracted 750 guests. Event chairs Nancy Spielberg and Tobi Rubenstein-Schneier also honored Julia and Norman Bobrow, Neil Book, Lindsay and Joey Schottenstein, and Joe Torre.
"It’s not very often that you lose your job and people are honoring you," said Torre, 67, who left after 12 seasons as coach of the New York Yankees to take up with the L.A. Dodgers.
