People: Mar. 4, 1985

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Daydream of a defeated politician: everybody still loves you; they roast you, they toast you, then they wheel up buckets of money; and finally, of course, they vote you in. Last week Geraldine Ferraro, 49, seemed well on her way to fulfilling the dream. At a $100-a-head benefit roast for the Women's Action Alliance in Manhattan, she took a round of ribbing from the likes of her daughter Laura Zaccaro, Feminist Gloria Steinem, New York City Council President Carol Bellamy and Comedian Marilyn Michaels. Then Ferraro took a turn at ribbing herself. "Governor Cuomo said the focus of the campaign should be the family. But I didn't know it was my family!" she joshed, referring to her husband John Zaccaro (who was sentenced by a New York court the next day to 150 hours of community service for his involvement in a fraudulent real estate deal). Last week also brought news that Ferraro, who previously signed a $1 million book deal, has just filmed a TV commercial for Diet Pepsi. Reported fee: $500,000. Would all that loot seem like a crass cash-in to the electorate when Ferraro runs for the Senate in New York next year? She was not saying. But if she loses, she just has to rework one of her jokes: when her mother asked if Ferraro would really be elected Vice President, "I told her 'Mom, is the Pope Italian?' "