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Wednesday October 6 12:04 PM ET

Ashley Judd's Public, Private Life

By DOUGLAS J. ROWE Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Tears well in Ashley Judd's eyes.

``Sorry, I'm tired,'' she says, alluding to the early mornings and long
days of flogging her latest movie, a publicity push that paid off with the
critically savaged ``Double Jeopardy'' becoming the nation's No. 1
box-office attraction in its first two weekends at theaters.

She's also tired of personal questions, expressing discomfort, if not
unwillingness, when asked to talk about herself.

``I don't mean just the messes,'' she was saying as her eyes began filling
up a moment earlier. ``I even said to Mom ..., `You know let's not sing our
special songs. Because that's our stuff. And if you don't protect yourself
you're not going to have anything left.'

``It's one thing for our Thanksgiving recipes to be published in a
cookbook. But it's another thing for all the anecdotes to be made public.
And I would much prefer to have a very private and very separate life from
my work.''

She acknowledges that's difficult since her mother and sister, Naomi and
Wynonna, have their own celebrity status.

Ashley's love life has been - and remains - tabloid fodder, too, which
bothers her to the point that she says she dreams about killing paparazzi.
But she's been willing to talk about how tough things were for the three
women before The Judds became country music stars.

So that proverbial line in the sand she's drawing can look rather zig-zaggy.

``Growing up is growing up. It is what it is,'' she says, stopping the
tears before they streak her cheek. ``And at some point in your life, you
take a little inventory and say: `That was OK; that was a little rough.'
But you grow up and put it all behind you.''

It wasn't all that bad, though. Her grandparents were comfortable
financially, so they could afford to bring the girls on vacation or buy
outfits for school even while their mother was struggling.

After sampling a couple of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, the 31-year-old actress
notes how she can point to fond
remembrances, ``whether it's chocolate pudding, or sparklers in the front
yard as the crickets come up and the sun goes down.''

``You take both your cherished memories and the stuff you wish hadn't
happened in the first place and try to smooth those into all positives.''

One way she's done that is by talking pointedly and directly with both her
mother and sister about the good and the bad they shared.

``Every family should do it. But we're a very expressive group of women
anyhow. So it shouldn't come as any surprise to anybody that we talk about
everything.''

As for what was said and how it was said, Judd draws that line: ``I don't
care to talk about it. It's private between my family and me. Thank you.''

Judd, who also stars in the upcoming film ``Eye of the Beholder,'' says the
recently reported chasm between her and her mother over the sexiness of
Ashley's roles was ``trumped up,'' an effort to drive a wedge between them.

She says her mother saw both of her new movies in the same day and ``cried
her head off all day with joy and pride.''

Judd talks about sister Wynonna with great affection, saying, ``She's my
buddy,'' with a girlish caress in her voice.

``I did her homework. She sat on me,'' she says, smiling.

And she shoots down any notions about sibling rivalries. ``We didn't really
have anything about which to rival. She's my hero from the time I was very
small. She would go to the school then I would go play school in her
bedroom because I missed her. I just basically wanted to be with her all
the time.

``She was a really cool sister in that she let me be friends with her
friends. And she'd include me whether they were going out to drive around
or try to get into trouble. I got to be in on it.''

But Judd says she always had her own interests and pursuits, becoming an
honors student in college before getting into acting.

After leaving Kentucky, she took the requisite waitressing and receptionist
jobs in Los Angeles, then snagged roles in the TV series ``Sisters'' and
``Star Trek: The Next Generation.''

Her break in feature films came in director Victor Nunez's 1993 critically
acclaimed independent picture, ``Ruby in
Paradise.'' She won an Independent Spirit Award for best actress that year,
then was cast as Val Kilmer's wife in the 1995 film ``Heat,'' and as
another wife, to Matthew McConaughey, in ``A Time to Kill.''

In 1996 she received an Emmy nomination for her role as Norma Jean in the
HBO movie ``Norma Jean and Marilyn.''

Her biggest role in a studio film before ``Double Jeopardy'' came in 1997's
``Kiss the Girls'' opposite Morgan Freeman.

Judd downplays talk of this being her meatiest role to date and how its
success could mark a watershed in her career.

``I don't feel that way,'' she says, even though ``a certain amount of
footage or whatever would suggest otherwise to people.''

``I know that in terms of public perception and whatnot this is a very big
deal,'' she says. ``But I've been chugging along quite happily through my
little body of work, feeling that each thing is a gem to me.''

When Jodie Foster gave up the ``Double Jeopardy'' lead because of
pregnancy, director Bruce Beresford and studio
executives were concerned about whether Judd - or someone else - could
carry the film.

``Oh yes, this was much discussed,'' Beresford said in a separate
interview. ``The names were bandied back and forth for days.''

And the names were sent up and shot down like skeet with various reasoning:
``They hate her in Europe. ... She's definitely too old.

``It's all very capricious,'' he allows.

As it turned out, Judd pulled off the role, doing her own stunts and having
just two days off during the entire shoot.

The only thing that surprised Beresford was that ``she brought a charming
level of emotion in the scenes with the child.

``That's very hard to do when you're cuddling a child who's not your kid,''
he said. ``The genuine warmth she felt for the kid, and the tears that came
to her, was something that was pleasantly unexpected.''