The fashion world may have commandeered the previous week's party circuit, but the social stars wasted no time retaking the spotlight. Not even Sunday's record-setting blizzard could chill their enthusiasm.

Après le Déluge
One day after the snowy onslaught, revelers descended on the Museum of the City of New York for its 20th annual winter gala, sponsored by Oscar de la Renta. "I tell you what," said Euan Rellie, sans wife Lucy Sykes, "it cost me a fortune to get here!" Others who journeyed to the glittering 103rd Street affair included Pepe Fanjul, Joanne de Guardiola, Tinsley Mortimer, Celerie Kemble, Trevor Traina, Bettina Zilkha, Zani Gugelmann, Blair Husain, Alexandra Lind Rose, and Jill Roosevelt. With such an abundance of boldfacers, no wonder host Mark Gilbertson kept so busy dashing from table to table making introductions.

Passing Interest
The title of the Cinema Society's latest sneak peek—Winter Passing—was highly appropriate, given how much of the aforementioned white stuff had melted by Wednesday night's screening at the Tribeca Grand. Moviegoers and post-show partiers included Helena Christensen, Michael Stipe, event organizer Andrew Saffir, and as further evidence of the eighties revival, the original Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio.

The retro theme did not extend to the evening's film, an intimate nineties-set tale about the adult daughter of kooky novelist parents and their unusual de facto family. Cast members in the house included Zooey Deschanel (the daughter), Ed Harris (the dad), and young Brit actress Amelia Warner (not the mom), while no-show Will Ferrell was stuck in L.A. After the credits rolled, Harris offered a hearty thumbs-up to Deschanel, who toted a bouquet of red roses for much of the evening. Up-and-comer Warner, on the other hand, was cringing after watching her own performance. "It's like when you're talking on the phone and you can hear yourself," she explained. "But 10,000 times worse, because you're on this huge screen." Likewise, first-time writer-director Adam Rapp was still fitting in to his new role. "I feel like an anchorman in this suit," he said, "but I'm happy to be wearing it."

Dance Fever
That same evening, School of American Ballet patrons flitted over to Columbus Circle to dance away the night—or at least some of the calories they had absorbed during the rich dinner beforehand at the Winter Ballet Ball. DJ Sky Nellor filled Frederick P. Rose Hall with a crowd-pleasing mix of Gwen, Michael, and Kanye, though camera-shy guest of honor Chelsea Clinton resisted the groove. Altogether less retiring were Annelise Peterson, Vogue's Holly Lemkau Doran, Vanity Fair's Alexis Bryan, designer Kim Hicks, the indefatigable Tinsley Mortimer and sister Dabney Mercer, Derek Blasberg, and Teen Vogue's Kimball Hastings. Author Jill Kargman, meanwhile, attributed her laidback demeanor not to the fact that she is five months pregnant, but to her vicarious athletic pursuits—she's been in bed early every night, watching the Olympics.

Animal Planet
"If you see a wildebeest, shoot it!" quipped Rufus, Earl of Albemarle, as he aimed his digital camera at a diorama in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, where guests at the annual winter ball were dining. He wasn't the only one on the hunt for a good shot Thursday night: Artist Damian Loeb, accompanied by wife Zoya, was also snapping pics, collecting references for his next series of paintings. Decked out in desert hues, many of the guests looked pretty as a picture—like co-host Jacqueline Sackler in a soft-hued Versace. "The desert oasis theme worked with [evening sponsor] Versace's spring collection," she said. "But as it was about nature, it was a good fit with the museum, too." Speaking of fit, no one was as in his element as much as Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez. "I'm a big taxidermy person," he admitted. "Being here gives me an itch to go back to nature." Good thing he's about to head off on a surf trip to Costa Rica, then.

—Ian Hodder and Laird Borrelli, with reporting by Sarah Cristobal