Eliza being Eliza

Actress Eliza Dushku must be elated about the Manny Ramirez deal. Although the Watertown native is a diehard Sox fan, she's also dating Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny, whose team will surely benefit from Manny's big bat. Over the weekend, Dushku was in the Hamptons for a special screening of her new film, "Bottle Shock," which was inspired by the 1976 Paris wine tasting that showed the world that California could make great wine.

The Boston priest who pleaded guilty earlier this year to sending letters and DVDs to the home of talk-show host Conan O'Brien is back in the news. The Rev. David Ajemian is this time accused of sending "very disturbing" letters to actress Lindsay Crouse , a summer resident of Gloucester who recently appeared in the Gloucester Stage Co.'s production of "Going to St. Ives." Crouse, 60, told the Gloucester Police Department over the weekend that Ajemian delivered one letter to the theater and sent another through the mail. Attempts to contact Crouse, the ex-wife of playwright David Mamet, were unsuccessful yesterday, and theater officials declined to comment. In the O'Brien case, Ajemian pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and signed a two-year order of protection promising to stay away from O'Brien. The Archdiocese of Boston initially placed Ajemian on administrative leave, but yesterday issued a statement saying that the troubled priest is "no longer able to exercise public ministry," and is in a residential treatment facility out of state. Steve O'Connell, spokesman for the Essex County D.A.'s Office, told us that the "matter is being reviewed," but no charges have been filed.

Boston Casting is keeping an eye out for Mel Gibson lookalikes. The state's largest casting company needs a few good men who resemble the Aussie actor to work as the star's stand-in during the filming of "Edge of Darkness," in which the "Mad Max" actor plays a Boston police detective. To be considered, you must be about 5-foot-10 and bear a "striking physical resemblance" to Gibson. (Hopefuls should e-mail a headshot and resume to edge.photodouble@gmail.com by tomorrow.) "Edge of Darkness," a thriller directed by Martin Campbell and costarring Robert De Niro, is shooting in the Bay State until December.

An upcoming "Nova" show on the Bible is drawing fire from the American Family Association, a conservative Christian organization based in Mississippi. AFA founder Don Wildmon and his followers apparently read a story in the Orlando Sentinel about "The Bible's Buried Secrets," scheduled to air Nov. 18, and fired off an "action alert" to members, urging them to lobby Congress to pull PBS funding. (The Sentinel reporter saw a clip of the film at the Television Critics Association in LA last month.) Angry AFA-ers have swamped PBS with e-mail, causing ombudsman Michael Getler to respond, if reluctantly. "I don't write about (PBS programs) before they air, and when I do it is based on observations by viewers who have actually seen the program," Getler posted on the PBS website. Wildmon couldn't be reached yesterday, but according to his petition, he takes issue with statements by experts in the film who say the Old Testament was written in the sixth century BC by hundreds of authors and that monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years. "Nova" senior executive producer Paula Apsell said yesterday she was surprised at the early backlash. "None of these people have seen the program yet. The program isn't done." "Nova," produced by WGBH, planned to post the four-minute clip seen by reporters on its website yesterday. Apsell said the two-hour documentary draws from biblical scholarship, archeology, and literary analysis. She's never happy when anyone attacks PBS, Apsell said, but "I don't believe it's going to get much traction. I think when people watch the program they'll find it much less fearsome than they expected."

Though not as celeb-heavy as past years, the annual auction benefiting Martha's Vineyard Community Services was nonetheless a success yesterday. Held under a grand tent on the grounds of Outerland, this year's Possible Dreams auction featured the usual array of excellent auction items. Among them: a backstage hang with the Neville Brothers; dinner, drinks, and a Sox game with Alan Dershowitz and Sox limited partner David Ginsberg; courtside seats to the Celts with owner Wyc Grousbeck; a visit to the set of director Doug Liman's upcoming sci-fi movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal; and dinner with "The Omnivore's Dilemma" author Michael Pollan, to name just a few.

Life goes on for Sanjaya Malakar - he of the many splendored hairdos on "American Idol" season six -who will serenade gamblers and shoppers at Mohegan Sun tonight. The biggest thing in his world? He just got his first apartment, on New York's Upper East Side. "I opened it today with the key, for the first time, so that was a great feeling," the tunesmith told us yesterday. "But my stuff isn't here yet. It's just me and my suitcases." Malakar said he and his 21-year-old sister still dream of attending Berklee College of Music. So maybe his next pad will be in Boston.

Symphony Hall will be star-studded this fall, when Sting, Josh Groban, and Yo-Yo Ma play with trumpeter Chris Botti and the Boston Pops on Sept. 18 and 19. The shows will be broadcast on PBS in March and also released on CD. . . . Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and Ted Kennedy Jr. were in the crowd at the JFK Library yesterday to hear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hype her new book, "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters."

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