Russell Simmons’s East Hampton estate, cocktails at 6pm, dinner and program at 7pm, tickets and information can be found at rushphilanthropic.org.

Alex Kurtzman, Elizabeth Banks and Chris Pine. (Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

You think you've had some wild nights, just try and top this: "When I was 30, I was at a party and a woman tapped me on the shoulder and said 'Hey, I'm your sister,'" writer/ director Alex Kurtzman told The Observer.

Last night The Cinema Society, with Linda Wells and Allure, hosted a screening of  People Like Us, a film that is loosely based on and fully inspired by Mr. Kurtzman's own journey starting a relationship with his sister at age 30. The film stars Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks who were both at Chelsea Cinemas to debut the drama/comedy. We're not sure if it was the movie or something in the popcorn, but love and inclusivity was in the air.

Both Mr. Kurtzman and Mr. Pine raved about Mrs. Banks. "It's a lot harder to be a woman in this business than a man, and she has a really amazing career," Mr. Pine gushed in true gentlemanly fashion.

"She can take any line and spin in a thousand different ways," Mr. Kurtzman added.

To portray Frankie, a struggling single mom, Ms. Banks told us she drew from the the real-life relationship between her sister—also a single mom—and her nephew, who is the same age as her son in the movie. "I just fell in love with Frankie. She's like a little broken bird—but a fighter."

We told her how much we love her in the role of Avery Jessup on 30 Rock and asked about coming back for the seventh and final season. "I know nothing right now. They'll go to the writers room and see what they come up with but of course I'd love to be included."

Others filing into the theatre included model Coco Rocha (with fierce red lips and matching Rag and Bone slacks), Tiki Barber (young blond fiancée in tow) and New York Ranger Henrik Lundqvist with his very pregnant wife.

After the screening, attendees regrouped atop the breezy roof of Hotel Americano for poolside Grey Goose cocktails and schmoozing amidst the Chelsea skyline. Huddled up to Mr. Pines we found Star Trek co-star Zachary Quinto and later Zosia Mamet wearing her Girls character Shoshanna's style staple: a center hair part. Clustered next to some model types we found Russell Simmons at the bar.

"I just got back from Israel," he told The Observer. Mr. Simmons has been making news lately, comparing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to "a rap beef" and was in Israel on behalf of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding that he co-founded. As he craned his neck to check out a stunning Nicole Trunfio, he was still able to tell us more about his peacemaking mission.

"We have rabbis speak in mosques and imams speak in synagogues. Bringing [the organization] to Israel was like a dream come true, obviously," he said.

The Observer asked the yoga devotee if he still found time to open up his chakras while in the Middle East. "Everyday," he said while taking a deep breath (in through his nose and out through his mouth).

Although nobody tapped us on our shoulder to declare that we share a bloodline, we did share a little meditative moment with yogi Simmons.

Namaste.

Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld and Ingrid Sischy and the Gordon Parks Centennial Gala. (Leandro Justen/PatrickMcMullan.com)

We strolled into the Museum of Modern Art last Tuesday, for a gala honoring the centennial of the birth of the renowned photojournalist Gordon Parks, who passed away at 93 in 2006.

A quick nod to the door guy, and then promptly to the bar. Still off the sauce, we grabbed a seltzer and turned around to survey the scene, only to be immediately interrupted by a bronzed figure that had surveyed our less than macho bar order. “Did you just order a sparkling water, m’boy?” photographer Peter Beard asked us.

“Regrettably so,” we admitted to the man whose legendary life-long bender makes Bowie’s Thin White Duke phase look like rehab.

“Very sorry to hear that,” he said, extending a hand, the very one that he touched Cheryl Tiegs with so many years prior.

Mr. Beard spoke to us about the Gordon Parks Foundation. “I’ve been involved with it since before you were born, but it’s my wife Nejma who’s on the advisory board,” he replied proudly.

We noticed a wrinkle in the space-time continuum out of the corner of our eye. It was the monochromatic septuagenarian sun god of fashion: Karl Lagerfeld. He cut a swath through the crowd in his calculated yet effortless way that we’ve come to know and love, signaling that it was, in fact, time to sit down.

As we climbed the stairs to the second-floor atrium, it became clear that the seat-to-guest ratio was a bit off.  What should have been a subdued sit-down process quickly becomes a game of sudden-death musical chairs, but this wasn’t a pack of snotnose asthmatics in an elementary classroom. We were playing with Sarah Jessica Parker, Russell Simmons, and Anna Wintour.

Waiters and busboys frantically searched for extra chairs as more than a few tables, who’d paid big bucks for plates of filet, found themselves short a seat or two.

While extra chairs maintained a holding pattern above the heads of the rich and famous, we’d been cleared for landing. We sat next to James Murphy, of LCD Soundsystem, who was serving as the evening’s DJ. He admitted that he’s been a bit overworked lately, despite his retirement from the band.

“Originally we had no intention of filming the four-hour ‘last’ concert at Madison Square Garden, but at the eleventh hour we did. I’m still editing the thing together.”

We noted that the last concert was pseudo-religious evening for us, and Mr. Murphy hinted that was the idea behind the film, titled Shut Up and Play the Hits, which will be playing in theaters across the globe July 18, one night only.

“It’s for the people who didn’t get to experience it the way it was meant to be,” he said, seemingly still apologetic for the online ticket-sales debacle that caused the band to add three additional shows before the final performance last spring.

Anderson Cooper, son of Gloria Vanderbilt who was a long-time friend of Mr. Parks, took the stage and cued up the rest of the evening with a few anecdotes the man of the evening: “The guy made Shaft, people!” he exclaimed, leading into a heartwarming recounting of his interactions with the photographer as a young man.

Clive Davis, Annie Leibovitz, and John Legend followed, giving speeches laden with anecdotes, professional and personal, about Mr. Parks, whose body of work was expansive and will continue to touch many.

Katrina vanden Heuvel (Patrick McMullan)

Dust off your Birkenstocks, it’s the New York City Green Festival! New York’s highest-minded citizens are to join in a celebration of their shared contempt for anyone who dares drive a nonhybrid—indeed, it’s free admission for anyone who arrives on a bike! (Ford is one of the sponsors, naturally, along with Clif Bars and The New York Times.) After DIY workshops to teach environmentally sound practices, keynote speakers are to include “hip-hop guru” Russell Simmons as well as liberal media elites Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC and Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation.

Jacob Javits Center, 655 West 34th Street, doors open today at 10 a.m. and tomorrow at 11 a.m. Tickets and information can be found at www.javitscenter.com.

Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa at the screening of Bully (Patrick McMullan)

It’s our big launch party for SCENE and Desmond’s, the chic spot on the Upper East Side that feels part Brit private club, part downtown lounge, is packed with PYTs like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Dani Stahl, June Ambrose, David Lipke, Charlotte Ronson, Ali Wise, Euan and Lucy Sykes Rellie, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Anh Duong, Page Six’s Emily Smith and Erika Bearman(aka the prolific and much-followed Tweeter, “OscarPRGirl”) to name just a few.

Hot on the heels of the Oscars, the bon mots are all about the best-dressed, and really, this crew is a little better equipped to judge the sartorial prowess of Hollywood stars than say, Giuliana Rancic. Stacy Keibler's gold Marchesa? “A little too Oscar,” observes Bearman, and she wasn't referring to her own boss, Mr. Oscar de la Renta.

Rellie, who may possibly tweet just as much as Bearman, focuses on Angelina Jolie's now notorious appendage: “She overdid the split pose. Whoever told her to show some leg made a mistake.” Saffir, the founder of the Cinema Society, may just know more about movies than anyone on the planet and admits he didn't get the Jolie memo on Twitter. “I don't do that,” he claims, referring to social media. “No Facebook, no Twitter,” which, while understandable given all the insider gossip he's privy to, is a big #shame for the insatiable social media masses.

Speaking of hashtags, there were quite a few at the GANT Rugger Fall 2012 presentation at the Fat Radish (one of the most popular restaurants, as farm-to-table, organic food doesn't have calories, right?). Most of the hashtags and instagram uploads refer to the quality of male models that create the mise en scène all around the LES hotspot. After glancing at a couple of #smokeshows—and the craftsmanship of GANT Rugger designer Christopher Bastin's newest collection—it is time for some celery root potpie and a catch-up with shutterbug Douglas Friedman. He was also a fan of the man-candy on display: “All of the models’ backsides look fantastic. And the front sides were even better.” And the clothes? “We’ll chalk it up to 12 years at an all boys Catholic school...preppy is in my blood.” On Friedman's iPhone is his latest shoot, an ad campaign for the high-end Canadian department store Simons. The twist? Friedman himself plays photographer and model. So does he consider himself a veritable Zoolander now? “It was a rather traumatic experience; to answer your question, no, I don't.”

Prabal Gurung at the screening of Bully (Patrick McMullan)

There are zero models (with the exception of Tori Praver) at the opening of Josephine Meckseper's Manhattan Oil Project at the Last Lot Project space, but the Art Production Fund-presented public installation is definitely photo shoot-worthy. The two massive kinetic sculptures, inspired by, yes, oil pumps, attract a who's who of the young art elite—think Yvonne Force Villareal, Casey Fremont Crowe, Rachel Feinstein, John Currin and Bill Powers with his lovely lady Cynthia Rowley. Because nothing gets the cerebral juices flowing like a sugar high, publicist Bettina Prentice hires a truck from The Sweetery NYC and has it parked outside the exhibition. Clever girl. “We are all mobbing the truck for their Belgian hot chocolate and hot apple cider, then mobbing the bar at the nearby pub for whiskey, vodka, hot toddies—anything STRONG to shake off the cold,” she explains. It's surprising how quickly those toddies sneak up on you, but with Prentice on the project: “Everyone was saying this was the most successful piece of public art they've ever seen.” Pour me a double with that sculpture.

Two days later, it’s champagne time, though people are flocking not to see art but the latest H&M collaboration, this time with Marni. Which, in retrospect, should be some sort of museum installation documenting the lengths to which shopaholics will go to score a $99 sweater. Interior decorator Natalie Obradovich arrives at the private shopping event just 10 minutes past the start time to racks and racks of…nothing. The scene is straight out of a Black Friday sale at Best Buy: Vogue’s Meredith Melling Burke departs empty-handed, standing dazed by the empty shoe shelves, while Leandra Medine (“the Man Repeller” blogger) battles the frenzied crowd clutching coveted beaded necklaces. “Clearly, they're doing something right,” Obradovich shouts over the blasting Rihanna and shrieks of bloggers looking for a size seven sandal. The Marni madness causes no casualties.

Next up: the screening of Bully hosted by the Cinema Society at the Crosby Street Hotel, while no less emotional than the Marni pre-sale, is definitely a bit more weighty. From director Lee Hirsch and producer Harvey Weinstein, the film is a moving, character-driven documentary that explores the epidemic of bullying through the harrowing perspectives of five kids and families. Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa host the  premiere and speak on the importance of showing this movie at schools. “Everyone should see Bully,” Cooper urges. The audience includes Russell Simmons, Rachel Roy, Prabal Gurung and André Leon Talley—there is nary a dry eye in the house.