I had a nice time, snapped a few shots and enjoyed the company of, I felt, some of the coolest and/or most interesting people on the planet at today’s Social Network luncheon at the Four Seasons. The filmmakers, as you might expect, were in an amiable and settled mood. Not the least bit assuming or presumptuous but…well, you could certainly say comfortable.

True Grit‘s Hailee Steinfeld, Social Network‘s Andrew Garfield — Tuesday, 1.11, 12:55 pm.

Sony Pictures honcho Amy Pascal.

Social Network producer Dana Brunetti, Jesse Eisenberg, producer Mike DeLuca — Tuesday, 1.11, 2:10 pm.

Social Network producer Scott Rudin.

Armie Hammer (i.e., portrayer of Winklevii) and engaging wife, whose name I will retrieve sometime this evening.

I sat to the left of Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin at today’s Four Seasons luncheon on behalf of Sorkin, David Fincher and Scott Rudin‘s film. Screenwriter Stephen Schiff was three seats away, director-screenwriter James Toback sat to his right, and Sony production executive Elizabeth Cantillon sat opposite. I don’t know why I’m discussing table seatings.

And then it was time for Sony production chief Amy Pascal, who hosted the luncheon, to deliver remarks, and then for Sorkin to say a few words.

Before this happened we talked about (a) what Sorkin described as an unfunny, overly prolonged run of snippy, somewhat defensive comments from critic Armond White at last night’s New York Film Critics Circle ceremony following Darren Aronofsky’s opening salvo; (b) the deep awfulness of The Green Hornet (entirely me talking, him listening), (c) the Green Hornet metaphor I created in my head about Jay Chou‘s Kato representing the more dynamic and forward-moving Asian economies and Seth Rogen’s Britt Reid representing the smug, flatulent and coasting-on-past-glories U.S. economy, and Sorkin being intrigued by this and asking if this metaphor is in the film, and my saying “no, I just thought it up during my agonizing experience of watching,” (d) Arizona and that fruitcake snap of the Jackie Coogan-ish shooter.

At today’s Social Network luncheon longtime 007 inheritor caretaker producer Barbara Broccoli (daughter of the late Albert “Cubby” Broccoli) was talking to Forbes contributor Bill McCuddy about the imminent announcement of her new James Bond film, which is actually a relaunch of that Sam Mendes version that stalled when MGM’s finances went south. “Cool,” McCuddy said, “I’d like to report that.” No, no…too soon, she replied. Tomorrow. Ten minutes after hearing this story I get out the iPhone and Variety and The Wrap have it bannered.

Paramount Home Video will release a two-disc Bluray of Cecil B. DeMille‘s The Ten Commandments on 3.29. This is hardly an important event from any kind of classic-film standpoint. Almost everything about Commandments is labored or hammy or campy. Much of it groans. But Commandments, shot almost entirely on sound stages, has the potential to look extra cool on Bluray. It’s a large-format VistaVision ’50s film, of course, shot on Kodak 5248. So I’m expecting something richly colored and highly detailed and….shiny?

I mentioned the “s” word because apparently there’s a monk concern that Paramount’s Bluray might appear be “overly DNR’ed” – i.e., given the Spartacus/Patton digital noise reduction treatment to some degree. Maybe. But that’s almost good news for people who get it but don’t it — peons with 42-inch plasmas like myself. My brain understands and agrees that a Bluray should look like “film”, but my heart wants what it wants when I see something crisp and luminous and sharper than before. Put me in jail.

HE’s 2011 Oscar Balloon is up and rolling. The serious addition and pruning process won’t begin for another two or three months, but it can’t hurt to have something to work with.

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.”

I saw Borys Kit‘s 1.10 Hollywood Reporter story about Michelle Pfeiffer being cast in Alex Kurtzman‘s Welcome to People, his DreamWorks-funded directing debut that begins shooting next week. And I thought, “Okay…another film to add to the high-hopes list.”

And then I went, “Whoa, whoa, wait a minute…Kurtzman as in Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the fisticuffs-and-fireballs screenwriting team? Described by the N.Y. Times three years ago as “the go-to screenwriters for mega-budget fare like Mission: Impossible III, The Island, Transformers,” etc.? Good God.

I wouldn’t call Kurtzman and Orci demonic but they’re certainly tinged with brimstone and sulfur for having written for Michael Bay. Orci and Kurtzman are producing Welcome to People and Kurtzman has written the script. Yes, we all deserve a second chance and I suspect that these guys are trying to climb out of the hole they’ve dug themselves into, and I sympathize. But they’re still Kurtzman and Orci. Forget the list for the time being. Forewarned is forearmed.

The film “follows a businessman who returns home after his estranged father’s death and discovers that he has an alcoholic sister with a 12-year-old son” and eventually “reexamine[s] his life while trying to form new bonds with his family,” blah blah. Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and Olivia Wilde are costarring.

Female contributor to Anthony Breznican-created Facebook thread about Giffords shooting, posted this evening (1.10): “There is only one to blame — the shooter. Not either political party. It’s a shame we have to turn this tragic loss into politics.”

Jeffrey Wells: “Only righties say that!

The mug shot released today of Jared Lee Loughner, the 22 year-old assailant of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, is without question the most…what’s the adjective? Piercing, vivid…One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest-y? Call it the most expressive photographic portrait of an apparently deranged mind since the infamous shot of Charles Manson that appeared on a 12.18.69 LIFE magazine cover after Manson’s arrest for the Tate-LaBianca murders.

(l.) mug shot of Jared Lee Loughner, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ attacker, released by the Pima County Sheriff’s Office; (r.) infamous 1969 LIFE magazine cover pic of Charles Manson.

I also got a little bit of a James Arness-in-The Thing echo from the mug shot.

I’ve been attending and covering the New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony for the last two years (i.e., since I moved to New York), but this year someone other than HE publicist pally Jeff Hill handled the invites and I didn’t hear squat from anyone about anything. Nor did I pester anyone (including NYFCC honcho Armond White) about attending so the hell with it. While the NYFCC soiree unfolds tonight, I’ll be watching the all-media of The Green Hornet.

The King’s Speech star Colin Firth and his DGA-nominated director Tom Hooper were toasted as an Academy and press luncheon earlier today. Nobody is more polite or gracious or easy to chit-chat with than these two. And let’s repeat again that TKS is an exceptionally well-made film of its type, and that I respect it fully and have no dispute with it being a Best Picture contender. It is deserving, in part because it knows exactly how to deal its hand.

King’s Speech star Colin Firth, director Tom Hooper at today’s honorary luncheon, which

The co-hosts of the event were journalist and former London Times editor Harold Evans and author Amanda Foreman (Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire). At midpoint Evans got up and riffed on the film, singing its praises and noting that he’s senior enough to remember listening to the actual King George (i.e., Firth’s character) on British radio. He was followed by a q & a between Foreman, Firth and Hooper.

Also attending were Harvey Weinstein, distributor of The King’s Speech, CNN’s new prime-time TV interview guy Piers Morgan (i.e., Larry King‘s British replacement), King’s Speech costar Jennifer Ehle (i.e., Geoffrey Rush’s wife), screenwriters Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious) and Stephen Schiff (Wall Street 2) and the usual ragtag journalist types.

CNN’s Piers Morgan — I should have asked for his tablemate’s name but didn’t.

(l. to r.) Tom Hooper, Amanda Foreman, Colin Firth — Monday, 1.10, 1:35 pm.

Forbes guy Bill McCuddy, Tom Hooper

King’s Speech event co-host Harold Evans.

True Grit co-directors Joel and Ethan Coen didn’t make the list of five Best Director nominees from the Directors Guild of America, which broke a few minutes ago. David Fincher, Tom Hooper, Darren Aronofsky, Christopher Nolan and David O. Russell are the DGA nominees, and if I have to tell you which films they directed then I don’t know what.

Others who didn’t make the cut include 127 Hours maestro Danny Boyle (the faintings did him in), The Kids Are All Right‘s Lisa Cholodenko (half expected) and Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik…tough, but somebody had to get left off.