hot ticket; At private screenings, high society meets movie magic.

Byline: William Norwich

The quintessential social vehicle of our age-or at least of recent seasons in New York-is the private movie screening.

Once upon a time, in Edith Wharton's age of relative innocence, it was musicales at home. Much later on it was art happenings and hanging out at Andy Warhol's Factory; then, swirling and twirling at Studio 54, followed by all those 1980s charity balls. In 2005, it is movie screenings. These are not to be confused with red-carpet premieres: A private screening is a small, or smallish, divertingly entertaining gathering where mass culture (the movies) becomes high culture (educated conversation) and the guests are the cognoscenti of the day, or a reasonable facsimile.

It has long been a feature of social life in Hollywood, where industry titans from Steven Spielberg to David Geffen rarely give a dinner without screening a film along with dessert. But the fall social season in Manhattan was remarkable-beyond such noteworthy charity occasions as the New Yorkers for Children gala at Cipriani and the Fete de Swifty benefit-for the sheer number of private screenings. Seemingly every night, people from Walter Cronkite to Amanda Brooks attended these free celluloid functions with enthusiasm.

In most cases these consoling evenings, often with buffet suppers-and did I mention they were free?-were convened in various studios' posh screening rooms around town by today's Elsa Maxwell, the popular society mistress-of-the-mix Peggy Siegal.

"Invite people who have some relevancy to the subject matter, and therefore a genuine desire to see the film," Peggy opines. This fall she organized screenings for such films as Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck. Subject to change, Peggy's current roster includes Memoirs of a Geisha, All the King's Men, and Mrs. Henderson Presents. Since Mrs. Henderson Presents concerns itself with theater life, one of Peggy's screenings will be for Broadway players and potentates. For Geisha, she has invited a bevy of fashion designers, including Carolina Herrera, to host an evening for Colleen Atwood, the film's costume designer.

At press time, Peggy was also hoping to continue her annual tradition of organizing a screening in Palm Beach during the holidays. Last year, it was The Aviator; this year, well, perhaps it will be Geisha, or there was even discussion about having Brokeback Mountain.