N.Y. Post critic Kyle Smith is reporting that Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky zapped New York Press critic Armond White at last night’s New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony. Which was no biggie. Aronofsky simply said in public what scores of filmmakers have been muttering for years. No love lost, what the eff?, etc.

In remarks before hading the award for Best Cinematography to Black Swan’s

Matthew Libatique, Aronofsky said that when he heard he was being asked to present, “I thought I was giving Armond White the compassion award because if you don’t have something you should get it. Seriously, keep it up because you give all of us another reason not to read New York Press.”

Aronofsky later apologized for his lecturn remarks (“I was a dick…I’m sorry…it’s just really hard when you spend years working on something and it just gets torn apart.”) White, chairman of the NYFCC, said he was cool with Aronofsky when he took back the lecturn and addressed the crowd. “Hey, that’s all right,” White quipped. “Darren reads me. That’s all I want. And because he reads me [he] knows the truth.”