Now we’re hearing that Nancy Lanza, the deceased mother of Sandy Hook elementary school mass murderer Adam Lanza, was a “survivalist” (i.e., she believed that social breakdown was in the offing and that armed self-protection was a vital skill) who taught her sons how to shoot, who reportedly had nothing to do with teaching at Sandy Hook, and had home-schooled young Adam, who was obviously mentally unstable.

In other words, Nancy Lanza, 54, was a paranoid gun nut who, along with her divorced husband Peter (whom Nancy divorced in 2009), reared and educated a child-killing monster.

I’m saying this as a parent who understands that the right kind of parenting really counts, and that the wrong kind can be devastating. Nancy had principal custody of Adam over the last three years. One of her big parenting decisions was to pull him out of high school (“She wound up home-schooling him because she battled with the school district,” said Nancy’s ex-sister-in-law Marsha) and, one presumes, teaching him to be at least comfortable with (if not embrace) the idea that under certain circumstances, firing weapons might be a valid response to this or that threat.

A N.Y. Times story says Nancy Lanza was a “big, big gun fan,” that she seemed “high-strung, as if she were holding herself together,” and that she “often went to a local restaurant and music spot, My Place, where she sat at the bar” and that she “typically came to My Place alone.” High-strung, booze, guns…what does that tell you?

Survivalism is entirely a rightwing NRA backwoods-rube attitude (Nancy came from rural New Hampshire) so let’s call a spade a spade. Nancy Lanza had her friendly, socially positive sides, I’m sure, but she got a taste of her own karma when her son put a bullet in her face yesterday morning. Because she said to her son over and over, “Here, baby…this is a gun, and guns are cool…you need to learn how to shoot it.”

Adam has been described as probably having suffered from a personality disorder, “somewhat autistic” and possibly afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome. Which is a burden and no picnic but hardly psycho-killer gasoline. I’ve never heard anything about autism and/or Asperger’s Syndrome being any kind of spark or ingredient in the mind of a murderer. Has anyone?

Seriously — someone please explain how Nancy Lanza isn’t the Dr. Frankenstein who created the fiend.

Don’t believe anyone who knew Adam Lanza and claims there were no hints or signs that something dark or malevolent and possibly wicked was brewing within him. Without exception, family members and neighbors always lie after one of their own has been fingered as a psychopathic killer. They always say they never noticed anything strange and troublesome about the trigger-puller because if they had noticed something they would be partly to blame for what happened because they didn’t say anything. So they clam up. It’s that simple.

I for one have said yes, I’ll attend a Candlelight Vigil to End Gun Violence in Studio City (NE corner of Moorpark & Laurel Canyon Blvd.) today at 5 pm. The last time I did this was when I joined a NOW march along San Vicente Blvd. in the wake of the 1995 OJ “Not Guilty” verdict. (I went with the late Julia Phillips.) I don’t care how many people show up today, but everyone should attend a vigil of this type somewhere this weekend. And bring a candle.

Sometimes I’m up for taking pics at parties, and sometimes I’m not. Mostly I’m thinking “photos are cool, this is business and they know it, so no worries.” But sometimes I just want to hang back and…I know I’m not badgering anyone but sometimes I just want to be serene and Zen and at peace on the sidelines. Nonetheless, I manned up and snapped Les Miserables star (and 97% certain Best Supporting Actress winner) Anne Hathaway, director Tom Hooper and costar Eddie Redmayne at last night’s Les Miserables Spago event.

Les Miserables costar Eddie Redmayne, director Tom Hooper — Friday, 12.14, 11:25 pm.

I asked Hathaway about the Judy Garland biopic (based on Gerald Clarke’s 2000 biography “Get Happy“) that she and the Weinstein Co. have been developing for…what, three or four years? In 2010 she told a BBC interviewer that “It’s a very sensitive project…we’re really trying to get it right so we’re taking our time with it…very, very slow incremental steps.” Hathaway told me that last August Harvey Weinstein told President Obama that the film would happen “within a couple of years.”

Hathaway is tallish (5′ 8″ but nearly my height with three-inch heels) and Garland, she said, was not quite five feet. So she’ll have to do a Marion Cotillard-in-La Vie In Rose (i.e., acting on large-scale sets with large-scale props).

While standing in the main room at half-time, the party at its fullest and loudest, I noticed a familiar face. A short lady with a robust personality, standing near Les Miz costar Eddie Redmayne. She had dramatic sweeping blonde hair and was speaking and laughing loudly — I could hear fragments of what she was saying from 15 feet away. She could have been 24 or 25 or 26. Definitely no teenager, I told myself. But I couldn’t remember her name. I asked TheWrap‘s Steve Pond, who was standing right next to me, and he recognized her but couldn’t think of it either. Then it hit me…Chloe Moretz! Who’s 15. (She turns 16 on February 10th.) She’s adapting to her world she’s part of, but the vibe was very bold and brassy, a little touch of Tallulah in the night.

Moretz’s next film, Carrie, opens in March.

“Geeky Blonde” Rhiannon McGavin, Lez Miz star Anne Hathaway — Friday, 12.14, 11:05 pm.

Chloe Moretz leaving last night’s Spago party. (Pic borrowed from Zimbo.com).

Amanda Seyfried — pic borrowed from Zimbio.com.

Earlier today the Detroit Film Critics Society gave five big ones to Silver Linings Playbook. Best Film award, Best Director award to SLP‘s David O. Russell, Best Actress award to SLP‘s Jennifer Lawrence, Best Supporting Actor award to SLP‘s Robert De Niro and Best Screenplay award to Russell.

Is Glenn Kenny the man of vision and principle who can straighten out these Detroit guys? Who’s better suited?

The DFCS’s Best Actor award went to Lincoln‘s Daniel Day Lewis, Best Supporting Actress to Les Miz‘s Anne Hathaway, Best Ensemble to Lincoln, Breakthrough award to Ruby Sparks‘ Zoe Kazan and Best Doc award to Jiro: Dreams fo Sushi.

I’m not saying the following 2012 films were the year’s worst, although many will agree that they are. I’m saying that except for one that I didn’t see (Atlas Shrugged, Part II) but heard was Godawful, they gave me a lot of personal grief. I’ve listed them in the order of worst first and most tolerably bad last.

1. The Paperboy; 2. Peace, Love and Misunderstanding; 3. Twixt; 4. Red Dawn; 5. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter; 6. Butter; 7. Taken 2; 8. The Odd Life of Timothy Green, 9. The Expendables 2; 10. 2016: Obama’s America; 11. Red Lights; 12. The Magic of Belle Isle; 13. High School; 14. Prometheus; 15. What To Expect When You’re Expecting; 16. Darling Companion; 17. John Carter, 18. Django Unchained; 19. The Hunger Games; 20. W.E.; 21. Red Tails; 22. Contraband; 23. Atlas Shrugged, Part II (didn’t see it, heard it stunk).

I’ve got Django Unchained listed as the 18th most painful sit because of the “dead zone” second hour. One of the many reasons I’ve got Prometheus listed as my 14th worst, I’ll admit, is because of the mandals worn by Michael Fassbender in the first spaceship scene, but I could go on and on about that film. I’m sure I’ve overlooked a stinker or two.

This kind of family comedy is much more popular, generally speaking, than smart, prickly, emotional family comedies like Silver Linings Playbook. All real Americans laugh heartily when the main character is kicked or baseball-batted in the privates. If only David O. Russell had included a couple of ball-crushing scenes, SLP might be $10 or $20 million richer right now. (No?) Dumb and obvious rarely goes hungry.

The Google Maps app became available today or yesterday. I downloaded it a half-hour ago. A beautiful thing. All the sublime features plus whatever’s new. Fast loading, voice directions, an address appears when you press down. Comfort and joy.

Most of President Obama‘s message about this morning’s school shooting was about grief, particularly his own. He offered one lousy sentence about a need for “meaningful action to prevent tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.” Obama is a lame duck. What can the NRA do to him? He can do and say whatever he wants. And he can’t even utter the words “gun control”?

There’s a delicious moment near the finale of Zero Dark Thirty. A moment of profound giddy finality. It happens toward the end of the assault upon the Osama bin Laden residence/fortress in Abbottabad, when two U.S. Seals are crouched and aiming weapons just outside the doorway to Bin Laden’s third-floor room. And one of them says in a raspy half-whisper, “Osama?” Pause and again: “Osama?” He might as well be saying, “Your destiny…we’re here!…come to us!”

I’ve never flown with an all-gay crew of flight attendants but whatever. Gay guys are always a tad more responsive, just a tad more alert and obliging. Gays guys in the skies. Dancing, singing…all gay, all the time. Hopefully this new Pedro Almodovar film will debut in Cannes next May. All Pedro films are perfect, even the lesser ones.

There is no bloody horror, no body count, no level of carnage that will stop the National Rifle Association from preventing any restrictions on the availability or purchasing of firearms in the US of A. Any determined nutter in the world can weapon up and barge into a school and shoot as many kids as he/she wants. This is America. This is the culture and the country that we’ve made for ourselves. Congratulations once again to the gun lobby, assholes, crusty rural Republican militants, cowards, gun fiends.

Presumed NRA response: This more than ever makes an argument for the free and unrestricted availability of firearms to one and all, because if the right Dirty Harry had been in the Newton school and was packing, he/she could have taken out the shooter and saved lives.

I know Newtown, Connecticut, fairly well. Winding woodsy blacktop roads, expensive homes, hills and dips, ponds, open fields, deer. I drive through Newtown every time I make my way from Wilton or Westport to my mom’s assisted living facility in Southbury.

27 dead, 20 of them kids, possibly all from the same kindergarten class. 6 adults dead plus the shooter.

But The New York Post — and other media outlets citing police sources are now reporting that the shooter is not 24-year-old Ryan Lanza but his brother, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who killed his mother, a kindergarten teacher at Sandy Hook and possibly another person at a Connecticut home close to the school, who reports say is another relative. Ryan Lanza is alive and has been questioned by police,

The deceased shooter was 20 year-old Adam Lanza. (His bother, 24 year-old Ryan Lanza, was incorrectly identified as the shooter earlier today.) The mother of the Lanza brothers, also dead, was a teacher at Sandy Hooks school. The shooter was reportedly dressed in black commando garb like the wackjob who wasted moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado. One Glock, one Sig Sauer.