Morris's documentary premieres at Brandeis

Thanks to professor Alice Kelikian, the local premiere of Errol Morris's much-anticipated new movie will take place at Brandeis. A friend of the director's for more than 20 years, Kelikian has arranged to screen "Standard Operating Procedure" April 17, followed by a Q&A with Morris. The movie, the filmmaker's first since "The Fog of War" won the Academy Award in 2004, is about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. It debuted last month at the Berlin International Film Festival.

A bestseller? Probably not. But Katherine Adam (inset) is still thrilled that her senior thesis is getting published as a book. Called "The New Feminized Majority: How Democrats Can Change America with Women's Values," the book by the '07 BC grad explores the rise of a voting block that embraces values such as empathy, cooperation, and nonviolent solutions to conflict. "[Sociology professor Charles Derber] said to me 'I think this is a really good idea,' " Adam told us yesterday. "I was a little bit wary about turning it into a book because there's a lot of resistance to undergrads getting too much ego." The book, published by Paradigm, comes out April 22. Does it go without saying that Adam is supporting Hillary Clinton? No. "I'm just observing," she said. "Whether it's Hillary or [Barack ]Obama, there'll be a stark difference with [John] McCain, who's opting for a hyper-masculinized strategy."

In awarding an honorary degree to faculty English professor C. Eric Reeves the other day, Smith College solicited some words from actress Mia Farrow. Like Reeves, Woody Allen's ex has spent considerable time raising awareness about the issues in Sudan. "A man who loves books and music, sports and movies, a man who wood-turns like a wizard, is now focused with unflinching fury on Sudan," said Farrow, whose tribute to Reeves was read by Rebecca Hamilton of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. "All of us in the advocacy community are more effective, smarter, and better advocates because of him."

British-born singer Natasha Bedingfield belted out a few tunes after last night's Celtics game against the Jazz. Beforehand, Bedingfield, whose latest CD "Pocketful of Sunshine" debuted at No. 3 on the US charts, checked out the famous parquet floor and chatted up Celts sharpshooter Ray Allen. The postgame gig was part of the Verizon Wireless Concert Series, which has also sponsored shows by Akon, Chris Brown, and Gavin DeGraw.

In its bid to attract more movies, Boston has made inroads. There are more than a half-dozen films set to shoot here in just the next few months. But Hollywood still has its eye on Rhode Island, whose film folks announced yesterday they've landed the thriller "Tell-Tale." Produced by brothers Ridley and Tony Scott, the movie's based on the Edgar Allen Poe piece "The Tell-Tale Heart" and stars Josh Lucas, Lena Headey, and Brian Cox.

A do-good group cofounded by Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, and our boy Matt Damon has forked over $500,000 to the United Nations World Food Program to help stem hunger. The WFP uses helicopters to send people and food to northern Sudan and the Darfur region that's seen an influx of refugees in recent years. "Without immediate additional funding, humanitarian aid in the region will be crippled," Clooney said in a statement. The actors' group, known as Not On Our Watch, gave $1 million to the WFP in 2007.

If there were aisles at Cipriani 23rd Street, the folks at Thursday's fete for Conan O'Brien would have been rolling in them. The "Late Night" host had them laughing in New York as he received the Irish Spirit award from the American Ireland Fund. The Brookline native was honored for being funny, of course, but also for his philanthropic work with Labels Are for Jars, which he helped create to raise money to feed hungry people at the Cor Unum Meal Center in Lawrence. (The American Ireland Fund is making a $10,000 donation to Labels Are for Jars.) O'Brien, who attended the event with his wife, Liza, dedicated the award to his mother Ruth Reardon O'Brien. "I've gotten a lot of awards over the years and typically my mother could give a [expletive]," he said. "But this one, this one she will be proud of." Among those applauding O'Brien was Father Paul O'Brien, the pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Lawrence and a classmate of Conan's at Harvard.

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