Who is Gianni Russo?

Yesterday's complete turn in the weather was very much welcomed and meant that the Feast of San Gennaro took place under gorgeous sunshine. Mulberry St was pretty rammed full of people and after going there all by myself, I had a stroke of luck and ran into Arielle and some of her friends.

The feast may have actually been the cause of San Gennaro's demise, since the diet contains masses of cholesterol and seriously fatty foods including - deep fried Oreos, candy apples, cannoli (fried pasta roll filled with cream), doughnuts, as much fried sausage as you can imagine, funnel cake (just deep fried batter with icing sugar as far as I can tell), and zeppole - which are like the most unhealthy doughnuts you can think of. In any case, the issue of not being able to trust a thin chef wasn't raised throughout the day. More pics here.

Around 16.4% of the state of New York are Italian American, and there's a huge amount of patriotism that goes on on a daily basis. Coupling that to a New Yorker's own sense of pride leads to a massive feeling of solidarity on these occasions. The guest of honour was Gianni Russo, who appeared to be enjoying the attention of his fellow compatriots almost as much as he was enjoying the wine they'd loosened him up with. We were stumped as to who he is, but apparently, he's an actor and was in The Godfather, which gives him the perfect credentials for the role. I can't think of many other more revered Italian Americans out there (except maybe Al Pacino, Carly Fiorina, Robert De Niro, Sam Palmisano, Quentin Tarantino, Alyssa Milano, Mickey Dolenz, Danny De Vito, Jon Bon Jovi, Joe Montana, Marisa Tomei, Mario Andretti, and a couple of others).