Yup. He’s finally making a break for it.
Ashley’s statement: “”We have mutually decided to end our marriage. We’ll always be family and continue to cherish our relationship based on the special love, integrity, and respect we have always enjoyed.”
Is that the standard Hollywood break-up statement? Because it sounds sooooo familiar.
Anyway. I’d love to say this isn’t a huge shock, but it kinda is, considering he lasted for over 10 years, you guys. THAT IS FREAKING AMAZING.
I’ve got $100 she switches teams. Anyone?
Awww….I hope she was the dumpee rather than the dumper.
Huh. No bet. She’ll do whatever attracts the most attention. The only thing that would attract more than switching teams would be turning to bestiality. Which, come to think of it, would not technically be switching teams, since she IS a beast. Tough call.
I wonder if he wanted kids and she said no?
That, or he just got tired of being married to such a hosebeast. A puffy one at that.
Remember, no matter how puffy she looks, there’s some guy who’s sick of her stuff.
I can’t believe I typed that with a straight face.
He dumped her. That much is obvious.
So did he wake up one day and suddenly realize “I hate you”, or was there some proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back making him realize “I hate you”? Was it the sanctimony or the pretentiousness? Fat ankles? What forms of fantasy did he contemplate – you know, horrible and painful and mutilating deaths? Did he deliberately architect a scheme wherein she walks in on him bedding down another women that she would consider vile, debasing and humiliating to herself?
I have so many question.
Reasons to divorce ashley:
1. she wouldn’t/couldn’t have kids and he wanted them.
2. he didn’t want to move to Kentucky or Tennesee or whatever state it was she thinks she has a prayer of being elected to anything other than Miss Has-been.
3. he was tired of her photo-bombing him all the time.
4. or the eternally puffy thing.
5. all of the above.
People who are that arrogant and judgmental never stay married for long. It was only a matter of time.
I’m sure he is doing the happy dance!
Mizz M, I like your list! And now I can stop sticking pins in voodoo dolls of Dario before every race. I am annoyed every time I see him on TV or interviewed, or read his tweets, because he’s so darned LIKABLE and yet I pretty much on principle would have to hate anyone idiotic enough to be married to Ashley Judd.
I hope he marries Dan Wheldon’s wife and has beautiful babies with her.
Ashley has been tweeting lots of nice things about him recently and even called him her “love” about a week ago (or “beloved” or something like that).
I had been wondering why nobody mentioned what Dario might think about her running or not running for office from Kentucky. But I just figured they’d stay based in Tennessee and go through the formality of renting a house in Kentucky but not spend much time there, and they don’t spend much time together anyway. And, it’s old-fashioned to think a wife would have to consult her husband about such things, though of course one would think a husband would consult his wife as well – a political campaign is a big upheaval for any family.
I am absolutely astonished that they lasted this long, but I think his having such a busy career and not being around her too much probably helped.
I wonder if she’ll get a pity bounce if she does decide to run for office.
And, I wonder if this wasn’t signalled months ago, I believe it was last May that they put their castle in Scotland up for sale.
She tweeted “@dariofranchitti family forever” today and he tweeted back “@ashleyjudd family forever.”
I will be interested to see if more details come out in the media over the next few weeks…I’d love to know who initiated this though I suspect it was Dario.
Being married to Ashley reminds me of the old joke about why men usually die before their wife….”Because they want to”…Dario was probably afraid that he’d soon get an irresistible urge to drive his car into a wall. Years of enduring Ashley’s non-stop self-absorbed moonbattery would bring out the death wish in anyone.
I never, ever understood what he was doing with her. Can you imagine the emotional rollercoaster that life must be with that crazy woman, emoting and engaging in her own special brand of pedantry?
Marriage is a patriarchal institution designed to enslave and diminish the female. In her world view that is. He probably had her around the house more since her career is going so swimmingly, and couldn’t find enough race tracks in the entire world to keep him away, so the choice to split was inevitable.
OK, taking bets on which one wrote that official statement. Never mind, it’s so obvious it was Ashley!
I went back through Assley’s recent twitter feed to see if there were any signs of the impending breakup. Wow. There kind of were, if you compare her recent tweets to her regular pattern. But you have to read between the lines.
She didn’t tweet much about him during election season. But around the beginning of this month she began tweeting up a STORM. She has mentioned him in 43 – FORTY-THREE – tweets since the beginning of the year, and refers to him in the most affectionate terms. At least three times she calls him “my loved one” or “my beloved” or “my loveliest Dario.”
These tweets, and their tone, make me think that the breakup was DEFINITELY his idea, and like a lot of men, especially men with talkative opinionated wives who love the sound of their own voices, wives who tend to do the talking for both people (fooling themselves that silence equals agreement) … he was probably processing this decision silently and then sprung it on her only after he had made up his mind. She realizes, belatedly, that things have gone off the rails while she has blissfully coasted along thinking she is not only God’s gift to Kentucky, but God’s gift to Dario…
Reading some of her recent tweets, I wonder if she didn’t know yet … or if he had told her and she was desperately trying to win him back by being super-affectionate. What do you all think? These just don’t read like the tweets of someone who knows she is going to get divorced. Unless he had told he and she was trying to woo him back by being all smarmy and loving on twitter.
Anyway here are some sample tweets from just this month. Less than half of the ones in which she mentioned him!
17h
@dariofranchitti We have the most gorgeous godchildren…. “@tatipapis: Another pic of my loves ? http://instagr.am/p/VAT7frF2ll/ ”
28 Jan
@DyrolJoyner Lucky to have interviewd @dariofranchitti he is the best! Was it the year won Cleaveland? Mum & I watched it on TV from Italy.
26 Jan
@TCGRTeams
So hard not to be obnoxiously proud, @dariofranchitti now has #02 car P1. Only 14 hours more racing!
26 Jan
@Cats_Meow14 yup with my loved one now in…
26 Jan
@dariofranchitti @MFranchitti Rrice milk is in the porridge is a great touch. Have a good day resting before it all begins! I love my boys.
26 Jan
@dariofranchitti There are 7, yes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 cats in this house. I hear a mouse in the wall. Excuse me? Get busy!!!!!
25 Jan
Yea, @dariofranchitti 02 car P1 in final practice, Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona! Looking forward to another exciting/grueling endurance race!
24 Jan Marshall Pruett @marshallpruett
Two of my favorite people–the incredible Kaye Wilson and some kid named @MFranchitti .. @mazdaracing #Rolex24 @SPEED
pic.twitter.com/dcFC49eH
Retweeted by ashley judd
24 Jan
Congrats @dariofranchitti & @TCGRTeams on outstaning 1-2 sweet of qualifying for the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona!!! Race is Saturday, 3:30 ET
24 Jan
Love how kittens find us for fostering – 2 more this week, as do Buttermilk & Shug, the most wonderful dogs in the world. @dariofranchitti
23 Jan
@IamCiviera @dariofranchitti And yesterday I was asking Dario how he likes the Honda Fit!!!!!!!!!
19 Jan
“@IndyCar: @DarioFranchitti on receiving his 3rd Baby Borg: http://www.indycar.com/News/2013/01/1-16-Franchitti-picks-up-Baby-Borg … #IndyCar”
19 Jan
So happy my Loved One @dariofranchitti had this incredible moment with the one and only Parnelli Jones!!!
http://espn.go.com/racing/blog/_/name/oreovicz_john/id/8854618/indycar-dario-
franchitti-helps-get-parnelli-jones-baby-borg …
16 Jan
My Loved One @dariofranchitti w/ Borg Warner trophy in Detroit tonight
before accepting his Baby Borg trophy pic.twitter.com/Jd8SDB8z Congrats!
13 Jan
My fave t shirt, just happens to be by @dariofranchitti and my friend, J Lehnoff http://www.jvllosangeles.com/2012-HOLIDAY/2012-HOLIDAY-1.html …
12 Jan
@dariofranchitti !!! “@IndyCar: 11 weeks away from @GPSTPETE! Is it too
early for race winner predictions…? #indycar”
11 Jan
@writebend @dariofranchitti @mfranchitti I think I remember that – I
certainly recognize that 1999 face (and ball cap ::).
11 Jan
Nice photo at the 27 Car transporter – year my loved one @dariofranchitti #Indy500″@JacobDick92: me and Dario in 2007 pic.twitter.com/uCXT5sRJ”
6 Jan
@canuckrunr windshield wipers, totally! Van you imagine as a gift? (@dariofranchitti – don’t!!)
6 Jan
@OurGardenNotes @indycar @dariofranchitti It would be dreamy to have Portland & Road America back on the schedule!
4 Jan William Spelling @WSpelling
@AshleyJudd @dariofranchitti @twsteel I CANT WAIT I AM WOUND UP AND READY FOR INDY 2013………….
Retweeted by ashley judd
4 Jan
Lovely photo of my loveliest @dariofranchitti pic.twitter.com/Sn4vqXp5 @twsteel: #TWSteel ambassador kick-starts 2013 racing soon at #Daytona24
1 Jan
Love to my family and Happy New Year! “@massarilia: @DanielaMozz @IamCiviera @dariofranchitti @MFranchitti @CFranchitti @TheCivi”
LOL’d that whoever was responsible for putting the news on the MSN site, used the famous Emmy pic – with that incredible mile high do! Disappointed that I’m late to the party, since I have pretty much given up TV, so I didn’t see it ’til first thing this AM. Of course, this was the first place I came, and have had many chuckles. Wonder if we’ll ever find out the reason, or will we be left in the cold like with Renee Zellweger & Kenny Chesney’s 4 month marriage ending because of ‘fraud.’
Does the thought of Assley dying old, puffy and alone giving me glees make me a horrible person?
Just stumbled on this, and had to share:
The couple did not have any children together, with Judd telling Scottish newspaper Sunday Mail in 2005: ‘It’s unconscionable to breed, with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished countries.’ gosh.
Our local newstation’s website had one of Ms. Judd in all her
beehive glory, and one quoter said
“The Jiffy Pop is ready and it’s atop Ashley’s head!”
I hope in the divorce petition he requests primary custody of the therapy dog.
i always thought she had a screw loose.
maybe he’s been (secretly) following the Mock Dock and it opened his eyes?
Maybe Dario reads this site and it awakened him to what a wretch his ‘beloved’ really is
mga – great minds think alike
ROP, I had the exact same thought in my head this morning when I woke up. I decided no, it doesn’t make me a horrible person. She’s a beyotch, and so is karma. She is getting what she deserves.
Dario deleted the “family forever” tweet. I wonder what that means.
I’ll bet she’s just managing to keep it together for the sake of her Senate run. I give it another 24 hours before she goes completely, bunny-boiling berserk. This is not the end of old Ash. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife.
P.S. Dollars to donuts she’s soon in rehab suffering from “exhaustion.”
Amy, I read in a news article that Dario deleted that but – it’s still there as far as I can tell. I logged on to twitter in both IE an Firefox, then refreshed the page, and I can see it every time.
Wow, a lot can happen in 7 weeks, look what she tweeted on their anniversary:
12 Dec
Experiencing a profoundly poignant, unique, beautiful 11th Wedding Anniversary with my Love, @dariofranchitti Family is irreplaceable.
Definitely Dario’s idea, and AJ did not see it coming. That’s what you get when you never SHUT UP AND LISTEN.
Hannah, I couldn’t find it, but I have a lot of trouble navigating twitter. I really hope he hooks up with one of the lovely Wheldon girls.
Amy, try this link:
https://twitter.com/dariofranchitti/with_replies
There’s this weird thing at the top of everybody’s page where you can choose “all” or “no replies” – I have no idea what that means, but I have noticed that if I don’t click “all” a bunch of tweets disappear. The link above has the “all” feature turned on. The “family forever” tweet shows up when you select “all” but disappears when you select “no replies.”
Oh, OK, I get it. I googled “no replies” and basically it’s a way of streamlining viewing a person’s twitter feed so that you don’t see their replies to other people’s tweets. For example, if somebody tweets to Justin Bieber “I love you Justin” (sorry Mock) and he tweets back “thank you” – you might not want to see all of that stuff. So by clicking “no replies” you just get original tweets that the person posted, not replying to somebody else’s tweet.
Apparently Dario created his “family forever” tweet by replying to Ashley’s tweet. So, since it was a reply, you won’t see it unless you click on “All.”
Wow, the tweets really tell the tale if you look between the lines.
Ashley: mentioned him 43 times in tweets since the end of December. seemed almost desperate to get his attention and reinforce their love, and how important family is. tweeted that sappy tweet on their anniversary.
Dario: has mentioned her only THREE TIMES on twitter in the past six months. One was after the Emmys back in September when she was taking a lot of heat for the conehead hairstyle, he tweeted that he liked it (and you KNOW she made him tweet that). NOTHING on their anniversary.
Next was some reply when she tweeted him about the stray cats she had in the house in late January.
And then the “family forever” tweet in reply to her tweet with that message.
I’m thinking that he’s been mulling this over for quite a while, but didn’t say anything to her until he had made up his mind, then he told her, and she went into frantic damage control mode hoping to salvage the marriage, but he had already decided, and that was that, so after a month of trying, she had to accept it and they made the announcement. I love that she probably was completely clueless and didn’t see it coming, because she’s just that self-absorbed that she thinks if she writes some script in her head about her ideal life and the extraordinary love they have between them, Dario is right there with her, when he clearly wasn’t.
I wish there were some way to verify my hunch, but I think we’ll never know! She’s not a big enough star that this is going to get, like, a cover of People, or the tabloids are going to pay their friends (wait, she doesn’t have any) to spill the beans.
Well, she Is pretty delusional, but I think all the lovey dovey tweets just prove how reality deficient she really is.
Dang. Those Judd women can’t stay married, can they?
read Ashley’s book and that family was bat**** crazy. Mama Judd was the whoringest whore that ever whored. Ashley was either ignored or passed from relative to relative– and she had some skeezy relatives who paid a bit too much attention to her, if you know what I mean.
That said, it seems to me she is a bit stuck in recovery. It’s awesome that she puts effort into getting better, but there comes a time when you see your past sadness as over and move on with your life (first hand experience, y’all). She’s stuck there. And it can be draining on a partner of someone like that, to always be the supporter and protector she didn’t get as a kid. The partner starts feeling like a parent and not a husband/boyfriend etc.
Props to her for her humanitarian work… but it did strike me as weird that she was jetting off to Africa and Asia without him. It’s been my experience that couples who are always doing stuff apart are pretty much friends and that’s it. Something’s missing.
Ashley will adopt a black child this year – remember this comment!
________________________________
thanks Hannah! So weird — when I go to his twitter, there is nothing after 1/28!
Hannah — did you read the twitter conversation in which bkParallax calls her out on her spelling? it’s priceless and you will love it. 1/28 in which she spells recovery “recovery.”
His Twitter photo has a big red pimple in it- yuck
I can just hear her trying to “justify” the divorce ala the cancellation of Missing: “My marriage was not cancelled. Was intended as a mini-marriage to last 11 years only.”
A fascinating read for all Ashley haters:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1665919/posts
Polish_Princess, Ashley enjoys playing the professional victim.
I think he decided to divorce her when she disrespected the milk after she won Indy in ’12. . No, wait, Dario won it. Ashley just thinks she did.
Amy, I love that link. I had read it before, but it’s always a treat to revisit a firsthand narrative of just how odious she really is. Especially that last bit about the inconsiderate flight attendants who dared to not immediately stop mixing drinks when she complained about the clinking of the ice cubes in first class. She actually said with a straight face that Dario had to console her for the rest of the trip while she cried. All the way from Los Angeles to London! And how she’s never going to fly Virgin again because of that incident. How the FREAK did he stand 11 years of that? 13 if you count dating/engagement.
I don’t think she’ll adopt a child, she’s too selfish to focus on another human being. And she has her animals, who give her what she wants – unconditional love and devotion, and she gets to do all the talking.
PS Amy, you are so right that she is absolutely going to spin this in the way that most flatters her. I can’t wait to hear it. And all the psychobabbe new agey cliches she will roll out when asked about it.
Maybe the private investigators she hired to look into her past revealed some information to Dario that he didn’t know or likely to embarrass him.
Don’t blame the guy for not wanting to be part of her “campaign” to be a senator. She would also see him as political baggage being married to a “foreigner”. She would cast aside her own grandmother to fuel her narcissistic ambitions for power and influence.
Realistic everyone, and this is the scary part, what are the chances of her fore-filling her ambition. A lot of commentators give her a better than even chance if she runs.
Meanwhile I hope to enjoy indycar again without her happy dances and victory speeches, and I guess so will Dario.
I don’t think she’ll run for the Senate. I think she’s just milking this for the attention. And if she does run, it will probably be in 2016 against Rand Paul, and not 2014 against Mitch McConnell. As many problems as he has in Kentucky, he’s very powerful, he’s a 4-time Senator, he’s excellent at fundraising (and has already started, so he has a huge head start over Ashley Judd), and let’s not forget Kentucky is a red state.
Ashley Judd has never debated anyone in her life, she knows nothing about the economy or foreign policy, she alienated the Kentucky Democratic elite during inaugural weekend, she has not even bothered to start networking with them other than showing up at the ball in an inappropriate poufy gown and holding court while they all came up to pay homage … and her own mother Naomi Judd said on Piers Morgan last week “She’s not as smart as she acts” (which we all on the Mock Dock already knew).
I mean, can you imagine her shaking hands, kissing babies and eating fried chicken? Every person she met would be put off by her arrogance, for one thing. She’s not a people person and couldn’t pretend to be one, she’s not that good of an actress.
She commissioned a poll to see how well she would do against McConnell, and she led the Democratic pack, trailing McConnell by only 4 points. UNTIL … McConnell’s folks did a poll and told folks something about Ashley’s past, and politics. She dropped 20 points in that poll. That’s bloodbath territory.
I am hoping she DOES run because it will be fun to see her deer-in-the-headlights expression the first time she realizes debating an actual United States Senator isn’t the same as sitting smugly on an Emily’s List panel while everybody gives her warm fuzzies and agrees with everything she says.
Hannah955, Yes it would be interesting to see her debate without a rehearsed script. Having said that, I hope people are wise enough not to give her a chance in hell no matter what year she decides to have a go.
Hope her ex husband in time finds a younger more attractive partner just to nark her. It would eat into her vanity for sure.
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/75090531.html
After a gander at the various comments here and the link above, I feel another book from AJ coming!!! Will she need intensive therapy first or just spiritual insight that she can share with the world? I’m also curious if AJ didn’t discover that Dario had a few secrets he didn’t share with her that turned up in the oppositiion research for her possible senate run? He has to have had some resentment for grief she cuased him in the racing world and acted out – it would only be human.
I don’t buy the marriage at all. If it didn’t start out that way, I think it was a marriage of mutual fame assistance.
Unless you’re into Indy Car, you probably can’t name a single racer. Ashley was probably initially good for his career – giving him a fame boost on that circuit.
I’ll bet my last paycheck that he’s been cheating on her for years. If she knew – then it was part of the mutual agreement they had to help each other remain current in pop culture.
He may have just decided that she’s become more of a liability than a help and decided to end the faux marriage.
Wouldn’t it be funny if Dario is actually a conservative?
Oh, whoever wrote Bunny-Boiling Berserk – I nearly peed myslef. LOVE that line.
Hannah, Dario couldn’t do much better than to marry you after his divorce from the puffy-faced harpy is final.
Victor, you’re so sweet! But I’m way too old for Dario. I think the absolute most gut-wrenching thing he could do is marry someone who gives him babies – then Ashley will have to watch him being a loving father to his own biological children.
I think that the mistake she made with him is she always talked and never listened, and she imposed her silly claptrap on him and thought he was on board with it. But if you look at his twitter feed, or listen to his interviews, he’s just a very simple WYSIWYG straightforward masculine guy who likes to have a beer with his mates down at the pub, and play with cars.
So, interesting quote from Ashley in that link that AA provided:
“The “Kiss the Girls” star revealed to Redbook in February of 2010 that the couple strengthened their relationship with a daily “appreciation exercise.”
“The point is, we’re always so quick to say, ‘That hurt my feelings,’ so how about being as quick to say, ‘I really appreciated it when you turned the TV down so we could hear each other.’ Dario and I do an appreciation every day,” Judd said, explaining that the point of the exercise was to ensure that “even when one is cross, to get some gratitude on board.”
That alone is reason to divorce the beyotch. Can you imagine your wife giving you a freaking gratitude assignment every single day? I bet she scolded him when he didn’t remember his appreciation exercise. What a bunch of hooey and malarkey he put up with.
I know someone who was involved with Dario’s Indy racing team for a while, and yes while there were rumors of Dario fooling around, this person isn’t sure they were true… but this person was very sure that Dario actually loved Assley. Go figure.
In Assley’s book she dedicated it to him saying that she grew up so unrooted that when she had to put down an emergency contact in grammar school, she didn’t know whose name to write. She said that Dario had become her emergency contact and she loved him for it. Kinda sweet actually.
But then…she talks about her stint at Shades of Hope, and how family wasn’t allowed to visit for a month, and then finally they were, and when she saw Dario she just flew to him and they wrapped their arms around each other so tightly, and went outside to sit under a tree together, and even though it was against the clinic’s rules to have that kind of physical contact, the staff were so moved by their obvious deep devotion to each other that they allowed it.
And there goes any sympathy I have for her. Because right there, she’s telling us that she FEELS more than the rest of us mere mortals, and everybody can SEE how EXTRAORDINARY and POIGNANT her and Dario’s love was, so of course, you have to bend the rules for someone SPECIAL like her. Gaaaaaah!
Wow, read the comments here:
http://www.indystar.com/comments/article/20130130/LIFE08/301300317/Cathy-Kightlinger-Ashley-Judd-will-missed-Indianapolis-500
Seems like the people of Indiana, and IndyCar fans, vehemently disagree with the reporter that Assley will be missed. Some good first-person anecdotes about Assley sprinkled in.
Two days and counting, both she and Dario have gone into total silence on twitter. I’m dying to know who’s going to tweet first, and what they’ll say!
Meanwhile, I’m sure Dario’s friends and famiy, and everyboy associated with IndyCar, is thrilled that they no longer have to pretend to like Ashley Judd.
I wonder if AJ has hooked up with this guy or if her people are just using him as her walker. She was with him before the divorce announcement.
http://twitter.com/caroljoynt/statuses/293396796745596928
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/inauguration-2013/ashley-judd-mayor-gray-and-other-boldface-names-at-a-madison-hotel-inaugural-party.php
Mark Ein?
He just got engaged to someone 17 years younger than Ashley so I don’t think so!
http://guesto****uest.com/washington-dc/capchat/mark-ein-and-sally-stiebel-engaged
Hannah955…took your advice and read the comments at your link.
this was priceless:
one photo with a caption: “Who is that man in the jumpuit photo bombing Ashley Judd’s victory photo?”
mga, I believe that caption was here at The Mock Dock!
I love this opinion of AJ’s divorce announcement.
http://www.laineygossip.com/Ashley-Judd-and-Dario-Franchitti-announce-separation/25823
I forgot just how much attention AJ needs, but was quickly reminded.
Read Comment and Watch Video:
http://jalopnik.com/5980131/ashley-judd-and-dario-franchitti-are-divorcing-so-we-get-to-use-this-photo-out-of-context
So,how’s she going to handle the missed opportunity provided by Dario? Movies, book deal, or senate run or all of the above. And will racing survive without her?
AA I love that Lainey Gossip writeup – indeed, she manages to sound smug and superior even in her divorce announcement, which she undoubtedly wrote and Dario went “whatever.”
Neither of them has tweeted anything since the day of the announcement when she tweeted “family forever @dariofranchitti” and he gave her a pity tweet back saying the same thing. Transalation: “whatever, family forever, yada yada, just let me get my stuff out of here so I can finally stop that hammering sound in my head that is the sound of you talking non-stop.”
Just on the basis of the daily “appreciations” she made him do, I’m glad he divorced her. Can you imagine any husband having to put up with that malarkey. “Now Dario, you haven’t said your appreciation of me today.” 11 years – that’s 3,650 freaking times she made him appreciate her.
I wonder if she’s curled up in a fetal position sobbing right now. And I wonder who’s going to break twitter silence first, him or her.
His brother is tweeting several times a day, doesn’t seem too broken up about the divorce… I bet all the Franchittis in Scotland are doing a happy dance this week, now that they don’t have to pretend anymore that they like Ashley Judd.
Sorry, me can’t do math. 365 * 11 = 4015. Plus leap days!
Sorry for serial posting, but thought you would like to read this bit of insider gossip from People magazine. Interesting, despite the rather inaccurate spin that she was always there to support him at IndyCar since it always seemed to me (and Indycar fans, apparently) that she was hogging the spotlight, not supporting him.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20670191,00.html
In the fast and dangerous sport of IndyCar racing, Dario Franchitti could always take comfort in knowing his biggest fan would be waiting for him at the finish line in her signature floppy hat and movie star smile.
Wife Ashley Judd’s devotion was never more public than when Franchitti won his first of three Indianapolis 500s on a rain-soaked day in 2007 as she danced and ran down the raceway to celebrate.
“When he was introduced, or got a good pole position she yelled and waved her hands in the air and was there to support him in a big way,” a source at another track, Watkins Glen International raceway in New York, tells PEOPLE. “He is not that outgoing but it seemed cute and like a nice thing for a high-profile actress to be so there for her husband.”
So for some in their racing circle the news of their split this week after nearly a dozen years of marriage came as a shock. “It looked like they were pretty happy,” says another source.
Others, however, had seen indications of tension between the two stars. In a joint announcement, Judd, 44, and Franchitti, 39, said they had “mutually decided” to end their marriage but would “continue to cherish” their relationship.
“They can be having a drink or dinner and all of a sudden sparks will fly, and they will be fighting over something that was said in their group of friends,” another racing source says. “Then it would stop and everything was fine between them.”
They had been the ultimate glamour couple, the 2001 marriage of beautiful actress and dashing Scottish driver bringing together the world’s of Hollywood and sports.
They often traveled together and shared in each other’s successes. In 2012 Franchitti basked in his third Indy 500 victory by posing for photos with Judd and their two ****apoos, Buttermilk and Shug.
But those close to them saw another side. One night they were with a group of people at Tanino’s, an upscale Italian restaurant in Horseheads, N.Y., not far from Watkins Glen International, where Franchitti, 39, races each year.
“The place was packed and Ashley was kissing Dario, playing with his face and trying to get him to concentrate his attention on her instead of the rest of the group,” a source tells PEOPLE. “It was cute at first but went on and on, you could tell he was uncomfortable with the public [affection].”
Luckily for Dario, soon to be the former Mr. AJ, he and his friends can move out of TN very fast.(Watch the guys in the pits and see the large trucks hauling cars.) I see that the press is starting to note that the pair was showing signs of tension. And now it’s moving into satire:
http://www.thespoof.com/news/entertainment-gossip/112300/ashley-judd-and-indy-winner-dario-franchittis-marriage-skids-out-of-control
AJ credits therapy with helping her marriage (FEB 2006) and (April 2011) tells how happy her marriage is.
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/ashley-judd-dario-franchitti-romance-timeline-185926532.html
It appears that Dario has been looking to jump ship for some time and she’s been living her fantasy right up until the end. Since he is worth far more than AJ, I’ll bet his advisors have been working overtime to save his money(and his mind).
http://www.therichest.org/celebnetworth/athletes/motor-racing/dario-franchitti-net-worth/
http://www.therichest.org/celebnetworth/celeb/actress/ashley-judd-net-worth/
Assley Judd is such a huge star, we have yet to see a single paparazzi photo of her or Dario post-announcement. Seems like nobody really cares!
You know how her half-sister Wynonna didn’t even invite her to her wedding last year? And then Wynonna’s new husband went and shot off his pistol outside Assley’s farmhouse (that Wynonna gave her)? And when he (Cactus) was in a motorcycle accident last summer and LOST HIS LEG, Assley never mentioned it, but the same day she tweeted that cabbage makes you poot, and uploaded a photo of herself hugging a lamppost with a big grin on her face.
Well, Wynonna has finally joined twitter with a vengeance and is tweeting about 30 times a day. When the divorce was announced, Wynonna tweeted support:
I love @AshleyJudd & @dariofranchitti & their statement represents them perfectly & I love them both dearly….”
Then:
I assure you all, that this has nothing to do with wanting fame & what I would ask for is prayer & a sense of compassion during this time.
Then:
They are people I love & this is a personal matter. NOT a professional one.
Then:
There is ALWAYS hope.
I guess it’s easier to love her arrogant (formerly) skinny sister when life cuts that sister down to size a little bit!
Assley said in a TedX Nashville talk that she gave, that she was once one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. Because of course, when you’re lecturing people about sex workers in Cambodia, they need to know that.
I don’t think she was EVER one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, not even close. At a time when the top actresses were getting $10-20 million per role, her highest paid role listed on IMDB.com was $4 million for “Someone Like You” in 2001 and that’s probably only one of a couple of movies where she was in multiple millions.
She made $450,000 for “Kiss the Girls” in 1997. Her big break came in 1999 when she replaced the pregnant Jodie Foster in “Double Jeopardy” which was a big success. Foster would have made $7 million for the role (at a time when Foster already had two Best Actress Oscars and was pulling in $9 million to $15 million a picture). No way Ashley Judd got anything like $7 million for DJ!
She was “attached” to “Catwoman” for a couple of years but according to her, she bailed to act on Broadway in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and was replaced by Halle Berry who was paid $14 million. Rumor has it Assley’s salary for “Catwoman” would have been $10 million. I somehow doubt that, and since she’s incredibly cheap, I also doubt that she would have turned down a $10 million paycheck to star on Broadway! She probably got replaced, against her will. I mean, look at her and look at Halle Berry … who do you think makes a better Catwoman?
So, maybe $2 million for “Double Jeopardy?” Then er peak earning power was between 1999 (“Double Jeopardy”) and 2004 (“Twisted” – which ended her career, basically). In that time period she was only in 2 or 3 big budget movies where she could have pulled in a big salary.
Also in 1999 she got $1 million for the crap-tastic “Eye of the Beholder” … then she was in a couple of small films, then $4 million for “Someone Like You” in 2001 – that was a mediocre rom com that didn’t make much money.
Maybe she was paid a few million each for “High Crimes” (2002) and “Twisted” (2004). But that was it in terms of her potential for big paychecks.
Frankly, after paying her agent 15% and paying taxes, I don’t see how they come up with $22 million net worth!
Of course, she did have a clothing line (the parent company went bankrupt a year later), a cosmetics contract (they scrubbed their web site of all traces of her last spring) and a jewelry contract which wasn’t very high visibility. Who knows how much those were worth. But still…
I don’t know why Dario’s net worth is listed as $75 million. He hasn’t made much in IndyCar, I don’t think – even in years when he won the Indy 500 his earnings were under $3 million, and that’s only recently. But maybe he has product endorsements … or Team Ganassi pays him a lot. Who knows.
They put their castle in Scotland (Rednock House) up for sale last spring and now it’s off the market. No indication whether it sold. Or maybe Dario bought her out and he’s keeping it. He’ll probably be spending more time in Scotland now.
Wow, this is the longest Assley has been silent on twitter in like, forever. Last tweet was “family forever” on the 29th of January after the divorce announcement. Dario replied the same and then he went into twitter silence as well. So she has gone five full calendar days without tweeting.
Leaving my imagination to run rampant as to what exactly is going on in a farmhouse in Tennessee. Various possible scenarios:
1) she is holding him hostage at knifepoint until he changes his mind
2) she has staged an “intervention” and he is now being held captive in a room with a therapist while he is re-brainwashed to think she is the perfect wife
3) he has hired a moving company and is busy moving out; she is curled up in a fetal position crying
4) she has checked back into Shades of Hope for therapy
5) she is writing a 10,000 word essay about the experience explaining how Dario fell victim to the patriarchy and is divorcing her because her face is puffy
Or she’s gone to bed. Whatever is going on I’ll bet it is insane.
Hannah — so funny. When I think of what’s going on at that house, I can’t get the image of the movie “Misery” out of my mind. I hope she hasn’t hobbled the poor guy.
P.S. Ash is starting to look a little like Kathy Bates.
It’s alive! (she tweeted today)
I read some “I know someone in Dario’s camp” style gossip somewhere. According to this person, Dario had been wanting out for a long time and everybody knew it but Ashley, who was shocked when he told her in December.
Meanwhile he has moved out, they’re talking, she (and her family) are trying to save the marriage, his family are giving them space, which I’m guessing means they are holding their breaths and hoping he doesn’t change his mind.
FWIW
So Mr. AJ checked out of Judd-ville.
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/ashley-judd-divorce-confidential
Congratulations Dario.
Karl Rove isn’t done with AJ.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/ashley-judds-divorce-political-attack-super-pac-prepares-18439014
Good stuff AA! I saw a video of Hoda Kotb and Kathy Lee Gifford discussing the divorce the day after it was announced, and they obviously barely knew who these two are. Hoda pronounced Dario’s last name like “pancetta” and Kathy Lee talked about how difficult it is to keep a marriage alive when he is traveling for racing and she is “always away on location.” Yeah, if by always you mean – two weeks last year.
I tend to doubt the National Enquirer story, Dario doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would willingly sit down for therapy sessions, especially not with his wife who would do all the talking for both of them, probably condescend to the therapist, and suck all the air out of the room.
As usual, there’s a kernel of truth to the rumor, and you can trace that back to Wynonna’s wedding that was covered in “US” magazine last summer. She said that the three women didn’t see each other much but they were getting ready to sit down with a life coach and “renew their contract.”
Remember the Democratic National Convention last summer? A reporter (from Esquire, I think) did a piece on Ashley Judd delivering the nomination from Tennessee. Apparently Naomi was there, a few rows down (out of camera view) and after Ashley delivered the nomination, Ashley turned and walked away, leaving her mother sitting there.
Yeah, I believe she has mommy issues but I don’t believe that’s what broke up the marriage. Even if there were no other factors, having to live with Ashley and listen to her talk would be enough to drive anyone around the bend.
Here’s that Esquire article: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ashley-judd-democratic-convention-12448906
Oh, she’s back with a vengeance on twitter. She’s also started a mailing list on her web site. And her tweets sound very much like she’s in candidate mode.
If you want a chuckle from the past read a bit of AJ’s past blog posts:
Four: When I have gained weight, going from my usual size two/four to a six/eight after a lazy six months of not exercising, and that weight gain shows in my face and arms, I am a “cow” and a “pig” and I “better watch out” because my husband “is looking for his second wife.” (Did you catch how this one engenders competition and fear between women? And suggests that my husband values me based only my physical appearance? Classic sexism. We won’t even address how extraordinary it is that a size eight would be heckled as “fat.”)
AND
N.B.: I would like to thank the many family members and mentors who read my essay, provided their passionate and unqualified support, and in some instances, made valuable suggestions to the text. They include my spiritual sister, Nikki Myers, who sat with me in my “office” under a red bud tree where this writing came to me; Naomi Judd and Larry Strickland; Michael Ciminella and Mollie Whitelaw; Reverend Mark Judd; Marina Franchitti, Carla Franchitti McFarlane. I thank Carol Lee Flinders, PhD, who taught me to mediate and who continually reinforces my organic understanding that pursuit of equality is fundamentally spiritual. I thank my life coach; Ted Klontz, PhD, whose unfailing presence in my life helps me become increasingly empowered and clear. I thank my colleagues Trena Keating, Michelle Bohan, Cara Trippichio, and Annett Wolf, whom I met in Hollywood yet who not only never flinch when I take a stand, stand resolutely with me. I thank Gloria Steinem for a simple yet powerful nudge toward full ownership of my reality; Dr Carol Jordan of the University of Kentucky for a lovely bit of inspired language. I am grateful for Angela McCracken, Esq., who in the age of unrestricted media frenzies supports legal rights where one still has them and helps my husband and me stand up to slander, defamation and lies. I give thanks to my extraordinary professor of “Gender Violence: Law and Social Justice” at Harvard Law, who not only teaches brilliantly but attracts to her classroom the most incredible people. My classmates, Rebecca Leventhal, Brittany Rogers, and Brittanie Hall, contributed, respectively, the reminder of the need for a clean, lucid opening paragraph, an additional infusion of steely, principled, feminist social justice values, and the insight that my body was being dissected as if it belonged to the public. Lastly, I thank BR for the soulful validation that what I had to say was beautiful and necessary. It was she who said, “you have to publish this as an Op Ed.”
Most especially, I thank my husband, Dario Franchitti, as it was his outrage that began this dialogue in our home. Over a period of days, his indignation helped me grasp the “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” double bind that inheres in The Conversation about both men and women in the public space, for which my puffy face was merely an example. Because of him, this piece became inevitable and essentially wrote itself. Dario’s thoughtful reading and astute feedback elevated its quality and breadth.
She needed how many people to help her write that easily-forgettable eassay about THE CONVERSATION.
http://ashleyjudd.com/blog/
This is just too must!!!
TOO MUCH!!!!! LOL!!!
Oh how I wish I was a factor in this divorce.
I love Dario!
Because I am evil, I want the truth to come out and I want it to be that Dario thought she was fat and puffy, and batty-sh*t crazy and couldn’t stand her sorry ass anymore and I want her to be miserable and publicly humiliated!!! Does this make me a bad person?
On the 7th, she said “we have kittens.” I wonder if she and D got back together.
I was looking at the ADA (Americans with Disabilities) site. And it defines a service dog as:
Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.
So what is AJ’s disability and what do those dogs of hers do? I see her holding them and the dogs lapsitting. But what makes them more than just a pet with an owner that is gaming the system? What kind of training and what kind of work do they do for AJ? And if AJ is disabiled is she fit to run for senate? I’d hate to see taxdollars wasted on cleaning the senate carpets for dogs that are not really service dogs.
Just found this awsome quote:
“And she has another college degree. Last May, Judd, who believes in ongoing self-improvement, earned a Mid-Career Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
“I loved school. It was a very meaningful experience,’ Judd says, adding that the degree has fringe benefits. “My mother-in-law has always loved me. She has a new level of respect. She’s a recent graduate of the University of Edinburgh. She just got her master’s in law. So we’re a little smug at the dinner table.’”
Oh, how I would love a sit-downwith her mother-in-law.
Amy, puh-leeze don’t even SUGGEST they got back together – shudders!
How is Assley so tone deaf that she constantly puts words in other people’s mouths that are extremely flattering to herself? Like she talks about how her pies are “famous” etc etc. And her memoir is full of things like that. Salma Hayek telling her that she (Assley) is beautiful and elegant and has such a long graceful neck, while she (Salma) is “vulgar” with a big chest. Or one of the Kennedys (maybe Bobby Shriver?) meeting her at some event and asking her what she thought her purpose in life was, then when she answered, just abruptly getting up and walking away, and he told her later that evening that he was so STRUCK by how powerful and moving her answer was, he had to go off and compose himself. Does she really think that if she puts flattering words about herself in other people’s mouths and then repeats them, she appears less narcissistic? Because it’s not working!
By the way, did you hear that she now OWNS the arena where the UK basketball team plays? Or at least she thinks she does, she just tweeted a welcome to Speaker Boehner who apparently visited the arena. Because of course the Speaker of the House of Representatives couldn’t really visit the UK basketball court without her stamp of approval.
Hannah, I thought the same thing about her invitation to the speaker. Did you hear what she said about Morgan freeman? “tell him you’re my pal, and his face will light up… .”. And how nobody can say anything about anyone, without it being about Ashley? Claire Danes wins an Emmy, ” I worked with her.”. Natalie Portman is Stunning. “she was stunning when I worked with her.”. She acts like the credit is hers.
I love this — We “may”sign up for her mailing list. NOT “kindly sign up for my mailing list.” Aren’t we lucky!?!?!?
” ashley judd @AshleyJudd
Finally, I did it! You may sign up to be on my mailing list: http://ashleyjudd.com You’ll be the first to know, well, all sorts of things.”
I also admire her talent for dissing someone, usually her sister, while complimenting herself:
“I think it was an easy thing [for the media] to say, my sister was an overeater and I’m little, so I must be anorexic or bulimia” No, Asswipe, people thought you had an eating disorder, because you spent 47 days at a rehab for eating disorders.
And this one:
“Supposedly my sister was the ‘messed-up’ one and I was the ‘perfect’ one.”
And my personal favorite:
“No one ever does an intervention on people like you. You look too good; you’re too smart and together.”
Amy, we are birds of a feather – I remember those exact lines and thinking how supremely odious they were! Indeed, the Morgan Freeman one is particularly odious, even for her!
Another favorite tweet was after Octavia Spencer won best supporting actress for “The Help” – she had to give a shout out and remind people she had acted with Octavia in “Flypaper.” What’s this “Flypaper?” A 2010 small budget film that grossed a grand total of $1,100 in its theatrical release.
I guess the closest Assley (Asswipe? hee!) is going to get to an Oscar is namedropping her past costars on Twitter when they win one!
I think one of my all-time favorites from the book is when Dario came to visit her at the clinic, and she describes how physical contact was not allowed, but it was so obvious to the staff that her and Dario’s love was SO special and SO deep, that they allowed it. Cuz you know, even the peons at the clinic could recognize that people like her love more deeply than we commoners.
Hannah, I take that as a major compliment! I think you should write a “tell-all” book about her, in the manner of Kitty Kelly. Assey must be stopped!
Sadly, while I don’t think she has a chance of winning in Kentucky, I could totally see her moving to San Fran and “inheriting” Nasty Pelosi’s rep. seat. They certainly wouldn’t mind if she were a carpet-bagger. She would fit in perfectly — crazy, wrecked face, and dumb as a box of rocks.
OMG YES! Hannah please write a tell-all book about the train wreck that is Ashley Judd.
ooops. That was me ^^^^
Who knows if they will get back together. Although, she did tweet that she baked her brother-in-law some banana bread.
Amy and Kathy, I cannot imagine anything worse than living in Assley-land and trying to get into that woman’s head long enough to write a book about her! I don’t think she deserves a book anyway, she’s just not memorable enough. Besides, I could practically write it in one sentence: “A raging narcissist was ignored as a child and resolved to get even with her famous mother and half-sister, then dedicated her life to collecting as many external tokens of success as she could, like an out-of-control over-age Girl Scout collecting merit badges, but nothing was ever enough and so she became more and more desperate to fill the void inside of her and convince herself that she was better than everyone else.”
Although in my crazier semi-stalker moments, I do toy with the idea of creating a website called MockingAshleyJudd.com where I would poke fun at her and point out how she is the opposite of Audrey Hepburn
But again, who wants to live in Assley-land all the time?
As for baking her brother-in-law some banana bread, I hadn’t seen that so I moseyed over to twitter and I see that she’s talking about Cactus. That’s her half-sister Wynonna’s newish husband.
So, for those of you not so steeped in Assley’s family saga, I’m embarrassed to say that I know all this by heart by now (oh, to think I had no opinion of her a year ago!) … back when Naomi and Wynonna got famous they started buying up land in Tennessee, and eventually ended up with a huge parcel of 1000 acres. I don’t know how they divvied it up, I think Wynonna has 500 and Naomi has 500. They each have a house on the land, but not so close that they are living in each other’s laps.
Back in 1994 when Assley was trying to make it in Hollywood, she lived in a rented house in Malibu (paid for by Naomi, no doubt) and it burned down. At that time, Wynonna offered her an old farmhouse on her land in Tennessee, so Assley moved there. I think Wynonna deeded it to her, plus a token 10 acres of land. Of course, Assley probably has the run of the other 490 acres without having to pay taxes on it.
So, she spent a lot of money renovating the house. And has lived in it ever since.
Wynonna in the meantime had two children by her first husband, divorced him, married someone else (her bodyguard? I forget) then he was arrested for some sort of hinky sexual stuff with a 13 year old, and she kicked him out within 24 hours and filed for divorce 2 days later. Yay Wynonna!
Then, she got involved with this guy Cactus Moser who I believe had been in her band for something like 20 years, he was a drummer and backup vocalist? I’m a bit hazy on Wynonna’s whole story, but that’s about it.
She and Cactus got married last summer and didn’t invite Assley or Naomi to the wedding. Mostly because she didn’t want to deal with Assley or Naomi’s drama or bossiness. The wedding was covered (after the fact) by “US” Magazine and Wynonna was quoted as saying that she didn’t even know if Assley knew she had gotten married because Assley was probably off with her Indy 500 winning husband or something (meow). She also said that none of the Judd women had much contact with each other but they were getting ready to sit down with their life coach and “renew their family contract.” Gaw-d.
The night of the wedding Cactus strapped on a pistol and drove past Assley’s farmhouse and fired a few rounds into the air.
Fast forward a couple of months, Assley is at Oxford taking two weeks of seminars, which anyone can attend if they want to pay $1,200. No credit, no paperwork, just a few lectures. Which in her infinite ego she ridiculously calls “a bit more grad school.”
While she’s at Oxford, Wynonna and Cactus go motorcycle riding, he gets into an accident (his fault) and ends up losing a leg, and damaging one of his hands.
After this is widely reported in the news media, Assley (still at Oxford) tweets about how important it is to get enough sleep; how cabbage makes you fart; and uploads a photo of herself grinning from ear to ear and hugging a lamppost.
Never once mentions Cactus’s accident.
Now, of course, that Dario has left her, she’s probably turning to family and worming her way back into Wynonna and Cactus’s good graces.
But in a nutshell, Tina, that’s NOT Dario’s brother so I would not take it as a sign that she is getting back together with him!
PS looking at her twitter feed from tonight, she’s sucking up to Dario’s closest friend, fellow IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan. Someone tweets Assley does she mind being called AJ and she says no, because some of her favorite people call her AJ and she tags Tony Kanaan in the tweet. Something tells me Dario is getting Tony in the divorce so she can forget buttering him up.
THEN, she’s tweeting about the UK game which she is listening to on satellite radio if I skimmed her tweets correctly, and someone asks her where she is – on set? at a political event? and she tweets back no, she’s at a wedding.
Wow, if I ever had a guest at my wedding who I found out was listening to a basketball game and tweeting about it, I’d leave that person off all future guest lists! I mean, there are times you should just BE IN THE MOMENT.
Hannah — your book is already half-written!!! You ROCK!!!
These posts are awesome to the highest of awesomestivity!
Hannah, that would be a *great* idea for a website, but you just know AJ would hit you with a SLAPP so fast it wouldn’t be funny.
(Some of you may not know what a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation is, so here it is on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation )
Hannah and Victor:
I am an attorney, so I would represent Hannah for free! Obviously, I have a lot of spare time on my hands. LOL! We could go all the way to the Supreme Court, though of course, Darth Vader Ginsburg would side with Assley. And we could bring a class-action against Assley for intentional infliction of emotional distress for subjecting us all to her nonsense 24/7. I myself am severely traumatized!!!!
Victor, oh SLAPP! I had never heard of such a thing. Amy, thanks for the offer, I’ll try not to need it
A lawyer friend of mine said this once: “the truth is an absolute defense against a charge of defamation.” In other words if what you say, or write, is TRUE, you cannot be successfully slued for slander or libel.
Right about the time when Assley came onto my radar last year (the silly “Conversation” essay is what got me to google “Ashley Judd” + “pretentious” and landed me at the Mock Dock) … I looked at her twitter feed and there was some woman who had called Dario a cheater. Assley went all “CIA mom” on her a$$ and tweeted to her that “you do not want to deal with ME” (because, you know, on TV I play someone who knows karate). The woman actually backed down and APOLOGIZED. And, what’s more, it turned out that the woman herself WAS an Nth degree black belt in karate.
BTW there’s a survey out about Assley, you guys should vote!
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/todaysbuzz/os-todays-buzz-ashley-judd-celebrity-politicians-021213,0,529495.story
(I voted for the “joke” option)
So, as you know, Assley and Dario went into twitter silence after the divorce announcement. She finally broke her silence – with a vengeance – and is back in Mother Theresa / Candidate mode. Dario didn’t tweet for a few more days after she started, then today he tweeted about having a good bike ride with a bunch of guys, including his brother. Also tweeted a photo. I couldn’t tell where it was but it was on a coast somewhere and I would have guessed not in the US. I checked his brother’s twitter feed and apparently they are in Monaco. Maybe he will spend a lot more time in Europe now that he’s shed his American baggage.
Monaco is a tax haven for rich Europeans (and others) … they don’t have any income tax. I think you have to apply for residency and prove your net worth, but I could be mistaken.
I’ll bet Mario is soooooooo happy. I hope he finds a lovely wife and has beautiful babies with big furry eyebrows.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation, however, you still have to defend yourself and prove “truth,” so it can get expensive. I would love to get Assley on the stand! “Miz Judd, isn’t it true that you have a pretend Harvard degree?” “Miz Judd, isn’t it true that you are complete and utter nutcase?’ “Miz Judd, isn’t true that you can eat an entire pie in one sitting?” “Miz Judd, isn’t it true you “did” the entire Kentucky basketball team?”
I would bring in Wynonna and Dario’s mother as my star witnesses!
Victor — that guy that wrote that article about what a bizwaz Assley was on one of her “goodwill” trips complained that she got lawyers after him. I suppose that was a SLAPP suit.
It’s Pancake Tuesday in the UK and it looks like someone named Laura Jordan sent Dario pancakes:
1h Laura Jordan @missljo
PANCAKES!!!!!!!!! #happypancakeday #shrovetuesday #goldensyrup #cream #delicious http://instagr.am/p/VpUqDBOs6m/
1h Dario Franchitti @dariofranchitti
@missljo and @pauldirestaf1 thanks for the brilliant pancakes!!! #delicious #shrovetuesday
Amy and Hannah – I love you.
Oh, yes, I know the truth is a shield against defamation; it’s just, as Amy said, it can get expensive. But if Amy does it Pro Bono, and gets some Pro Bono help, and calls in a shyster to make sure word gets out in The Court of Public Opinion…then it will be more fun to watch than was Streisand’s suit against the California Coastline Project.
Amy, be sure to bring up her “service” dogs. “Ms. Judd, isn’t it true you carry those dogs around because you’re nuttier than squirrel poop?”
Furry eyebrows and squirrel poop – hee!
I think Dario is in Monaco training with some of his mates from the racing world (somebody mentioned a triathlon in the UK in a bit, not sure if they are training for that). This lady with the pancakes is based in Monaco according to her twitter profile. Going back through her tweets, she’s Scottish, and she seems to know a lot of the guys in the racing world, including Dario’s brother, and I think their cousin’s name is Paul diResta and he’s also a racer.
Ah, OK, some judicious googling shows that she is in fact Paul diResta’s live-in girlfriend. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/scottishnews/4106360/Matt-Meets-Paul-Di-Resta.html From his Wikipedia page: “Upon the signing for his début season with Force India, Di Resta purchased an apartment in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He joins numerous other racing drivers in the Principality where he lives with his girlfriend Laura Jordan.” And yes, Paul is Dario and Marino’s younger cousin (not sure what the blood connection is – maybe their mothers are sisters?)
Did Assley get her lawyers after that guy who wrote about having to accompany her on one of her safaris? Oops, I mean humanitarian missions. I know he took down the page, but it is out there, somebody mirrored it. Wonder why she didn’t go after THAT person. The guy who originally wrote it, Josh Trevino, is a conservative blogger. It must have been HELL for him to spend time with her!
Mock, I love you too! Hope things are going well and you’re not too overworked. Give Mock Junior a big hug.
Victor, Nuttier that squirrel poop, that is awesome. I have another one, “Miz Judd, isn’t true that you sh&t really does stink?”
Hey everyone, let’s try to get this up to 200 comments
Hannah, re the article, I saw somewhere that the article “was saved” before the lawyers got involved, or something like that. I will try and find it.
Anyway, the Josh Trevino article is on FreeRepublic, and the poster said “Josh Trevino (a la Tacitus) wrote this account of uber-celebrity Ashley Judd on a trip to Africa. Someone’s lawyers didn’t like it – so it was removed from its initial page. Luckily for the world at large – I saved a copy.”. Bless him!
I just saw that Ashley lovers are calling Rand Paul a misogynist because he called her “attractive” and questioned her ties to Kentucky.
I can’t believe that we aren’t being graced with AJ’s opinion of the SOTU( at least I haven’t seen it after looking).( Does this mean she’s not running for senate?) But she does want to impress us with her Southern Native-American knowledge with her tweet about poke salat. Since poke salat can be questionable as to its safety I’m sure we’re in for a long learned tweet.
http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/newspaper/june21b02.html
Will AJ try to keep ObamaCare costs down by condeming the eating of poke salat?
I’m new here but love to lurk. To help get to 200 comments, here’s a little something. Although it’s torture, I’m reading her book and it’s full of baloney.
She goes on ad-nauseum about her 42 day stay at Shades of Hope rehab back in 2006. “Sister” checked in sometime in January and Ashley checked in right as Sister left. So by my calculation, she should have been there March/early April and even references seeing a full, pink moon on 4/13/06, during her last week of stay.
She talked about being anorexic. After all the recent puffiness, morbid curiosity got the best of me and I went over to Gettyimages to look for pix from 2006 to see how skinny she really was. Behold – glorious photos of her at Dario’s Toyota 300 race on 3/26. A black tie Breast Cancer gala on 4/10.
So, me wonders – was she really at rehab for 42 days? The numbers don’t add up. Miss Hannah, you’re good at this kind of thing. What do you think?!?
Is AJ really working for women’s rights and equal pay or is she just spreading propaganda for the Obama team?
In AJ’s blog, she suggests that women are being treated finacially equall to men in the Obama White House.
http://ashleyjudd.com/2012/11/02/equal-pay-in-president-obamas-white-house/
However, AJ’s statement just doesn’t hold up.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/10/19/why_does_obama039s_white_house_pay_women_less_293607.html
The picture in this blog of an animal rights activist (AJ) clearly shows that to fight on behalf of animals one must first consume lots of Kentucky bourbon.
And then empty a flowerpot on your head.
http://animalfair.com/home/ashley-judd-takes-world-buttermilk/
hahaha! They said “Double Jeopardy” was a blockbuster. I had to look up the movie (To be fair, the premise sounds pretty interesting), and I noticed Ashley’s picture is probably a couple of years old, because her face isn’t all puffy and botoxed to within an inch of its life:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000171/?ref_=tt_cl_t2
AA, in the true spirt of Obama care. i.e. death panels, she will probably try to kill everyone off with Poke salat, thereby keeping costs down. I hope she eats a big ole helping.
Jay, welcome to the Assley mockery! Reading your post is like meeting my twin – your mind works the same way mine does. I’m always triangulating facts to see if they dovetail.
I checked her book out of the library, because I cannot imagine contributing one dime to Assley Judd’s bank account … I had it for weeks and kept renewing it on-line, then I couldn’t renew it anymore and ended up owing 10 cents in fines, which pi$$ed me off because: Assley Judd cost me money!!!
Anyway I could not bring myself to actually sit down and read it through. Maybe I will check it out of the library again and try to get through 10 pages a day. When I get to the section on Shades of Hope I’ll check out the timeline.
Victor, speaking of “Double Jeopardy” being a blockbuster, it was a very successful movie. Considering that it was essentially a remake of “The Fugitive” complete with Tommy Lee Jones reprising his role as the sympathetic pursuing lawman, a potted plant could have played Assley’s role and it still would have made a gazillion dollars.
I love how when the media cite her movie career they always mention “Double Jeopardy” (1999) and “Kiss the Girls” (1997) – I mean, those films weren’t even made in this MILLENIUM!
I know this isn’t a political site (Chicks on the Right is the place for that), but I’ve seen lots of people commenting in various articles about Assley’s potential Senate candidacy, and they always fall back on Ronald Reagan and Al Franken to prove that entertainers can be politicians.
I got curious about Al Franken so I looked him up. Was surprised to see that he is an honors graduate of Harvard (majored in Government, graduated in 1973). He has written five bestselling books, a few of them on political subjects, and had a political talk show for years. AND, he moved back to Minnesota in 2005, three years before the Senate race he won, and was very honest that he didn’t know if he was going to run, but he was doing everything he needed to do if he decided to.
Now, I don’t know if that makes him qualified to be a US Senator but it makes him more qualified than Assley Judd – who spends ZERO time in Kentucky unless it’s to see a UK basketball game.
He has had a genuine interest and involvement in politics for 40 years. Whereas Assley Judd’s politics is all “kumbaya” and “social justice” – she has pretty much zero interest in – or knowledge of – foreign policy or the economy. Though once somebody tells her what to think, she will spout gospel on those subjects too, no doubt.
As the days tick by, I think it’s becoming more clear that she is not going to take on McConnell in Kentucky. Some Kentucky Democratic insider said she really needs to decide by this spring or it’ll be too late for her.
Did someone mention the THROW YOUR DRINK ON ASHLEY CAMPAIGN?
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/pikeville-ky/TVNO9HM8VKDC6FTHM
It’s available in lots of places – that Josh Trevino article – I think I’ve linked to it here before!
AA, I saw a post where you linked to an essay by Assley on her web site about salaries in the White House. It hasn’t shown up on this page yet probably because you have two links in it (anything with more than one link gets sent to Mock for moderator approval, probably due to the spam filter?)…
Anyway, I literally steam at the ears whenever I think about Assley Judd pontificating about how there is no pay difference in the Obama White House. For two reasons:
1) her “scholarship” is laughably – almost criminally – bad
2) she’s lying
Again, this is not a political site, so I will confine my comments to Assley Judd, and the FACTS. And I’ll try to be brief!
Last October she tweeted that she was sick of the “lie” that women in the White House are paid less, and she was going to publish a “full inventory” of women’s salaries. Then she didn’t.
I got curious about this, so I downloaded all of the data for 450+ White House staffers from the actual White House web site. And I analyzed it.
What I found was a CLEAR pattern of discrimination.
Now, there’s two types of gender discrimination regarding pay in the workplace:
1) Lily Ledbetter style discrimination, where women are paid less for the same work;
2) glass ceiling discrimination, where there are fewer women in higher-paying jobs.
In her essay that AA linked to, Assley Judd didn’t do a “full inventory” – in fact she didn’t do any inventory. She also did not confine her essay to White House salaries, but instead (mistakenly) included such people as the Secretary of State – who is NOT a White House employee. She cherry-picked a few female employees and wrote about them, as if this proved that Obama is a woman’s best fried.
Assley also quoted only ONE source in her essay. That source was a newspaper founded and funded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon – you know, the Moonies? Most of her “essay” (more than 75% of the word count) was quotes from this “newspaper” – and she even cut and pasted the same quotes twice! It’s like she had a spare 10 minutes and threw something up on her web site.
So, what is the truth about salaries under Obama?
There is no Lily Ledbetter style discrimination. Women get equal pay for the same work. Why? Because it’s the LAW. The White House salary structure is part of the federal bureaucracy, Obama couldn’t pay women less for the same job if he tried.
BUT, there is ABSOLUTELY a glass ceiling in the White House. Break out the male/female ratio at various pay grades, from lowest to highest, and it’s striking. At the lowest pay level, 56% are women. At the highest pay level, only 30% are women.
I ran a program to do 10,000 computer simulations, randomly matching males and females to the 450+ salaries in the White House. Then I looked at how many of those 10,000 simulations resulted in a disparity such as exists in the actual White House staffing. The answer? Fewer than 1%. In other words, there’s a greater than 99% chance that hiring/promotion practices in the White House are gender based, and are weighted against women.
Reading Assley Judd’s essay on her web site convinced me beyond any doubt that she is both lazy and dumb. I cannot believe she actually made it through even the dumbed-down coursework she had in the Mid-Career MPA program she attended for a year at Harvard.
And as for Obama? He paid female staffers less as a US Senator. He paid female staffers less in his 2008 Presidential campaign. And he pays female staffers less in the White House. John McCain, in his Presidential campaign in 2008? Paid female staffers MORE than he paid male staffers. So much for the Republican war on women!
THANK YOU HANNAH!!!!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BBVxy0bCUAEQOry.jpg:thumb
Did you all see the above picture of Assley at the Emily’s List Bruch? Doesn’t seem to be appropriate attire for a femi-nazi get together.
Mocked here, Amy! http://chicksontheright.com/categories/the-makeover-and-or-miscellaneous/item/23724-thanks-for-proving-my-point-ashley-judd
Awesome, Mock!!!!
Are AJ and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand destined to become BFFs? Both are married to British nationals, follow each other on twitter and seem to have several things in common?
Bill Clinton hasn’t asked AJ to run has he? I’m starting to wonder why no DEM has come out to run. Sen.McConnell has his campaign site up and running. Granted it will be a long and expensive race, but how long can she block the others who actually live in Kentucky? Other than feeding her narcissism and the publicity for her lackluster career, what is she waiting for? She isn’t doing the Dem in Kentucky any favors.
Fascinating stuff Hannah! And thanks for the shout out.
Her own mother said she’s not that smart. But I have to give her credit for one thing – dreaming up a sure fire way of getting attention and publicity. This whole Senate thing is genius. She has no intention of running. Look at all the tweeting, talking, articles, coverage. It’s non-stop! She’s the center of attention.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dario separation is another clever idea to get sympathy and even more attention. It’s all keeping her out there (which her youth, beauty and movie career no longer do). Time will tell.
Re. her book, I borrowed it and am skimming it for ridiculous, mockable comments. And lying, because she does. A lot. I’ll try to check in and share, hehehe
How come That AJ doesn’t call out those people who praise her “better looks” over “ugly” Mitch as objectifying and sexualizing her.
Must be great to be able to move the goal posts when ever it suits her and never be questioned.
Any wonder she is so smug and arrogant.
A good article on the upcoming Kentucky senate race.
http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/?p=6906
Maybe the POTUS will appoint AJ to an ambassadorship. I hear that we lost an ambassaor in Benghazi. AJ would be a perfect replacement.
pic.twitter.com/GQEBEif8
Is this the face of a happy man,or what?
I’ve long since learned that any time I think I have a scoop on Assley Judd, Mock has already seen it!
Jay, you’re absolutely right. Assley Judd is brilliant at one thing – promoting the Assley Judd brand. When her movie career hit the toilet, she segued seamlessly into (paid) “humanitarian” work and then pretended that she had made a conscious decision to retire from Hollywood while one of the highest paid actresses. I’m sorry, no she didn’t and no that wasn’t.
Jethro, indeed, you nailed it. She never complained about being objectified when she was taking off her clothes in movies, posing for sexy photos, or raking in $$$ for a cosmetics contract (while, laughably, claiming her photos weren’t airbrushed).
She’s just supremely dishonest. She cannot even bring herself to admit that “Missing” (a) was canceled and (b) was not a Mini-Series.
I saw a video of her giving a talk in Mali about AIDS – in French, one of the official languages there. She majored in French at UK. It was appalling how people were fawning all over her and complimenting her French when in fact she gave half the speech in ENGLISH (using English words when she didn’t know the French words), which of course the audience couldn’t understand! And I’m talking about AIDS-related words that she could easily have looked up before she traveled there. Google Translate, anyone? But newp – too lazy to even prep. And why bother? She was praised and honored as if she had actually delivered a speech in fluent French. She had the SMUGGEST Cheshire Cat smirk on her face as she was being praised for her crappy Franglais.
She is the epitome of “The Emperor Has No Clothes” – she sails through life being mediocre at everything, yet supremely confident that she is talented at everything she does, because nobody ever dares tell her “um, why didn’t you actually prepare a speech in FRENCH?”
One example: she got panned by the critics (and her co-stars) when she was in a play on Broadway, but yet when she was interviewed at DNC 2012 about giving the nomination from Tennessee, she laughably replied “I was more nervous than when I had to deliver that extraordinary monologue when I played Maggie in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ on Broadway.” (That’s a favorite trick of hers, shoehorning her resume into interviews even though it is wildly off-topic).
AA, as for AJ and Kirsten Gillibrand, they are both Emily’s List darlings. Emily’s List is a PAC that supports female Democratic candidates to run for national office. AJ appeared on a lunch panel sponsored by Emily’s List at DNC 2012, which is where she got the idea to run for elected office. You could see her head swelling over the course of a couple of days after that panel when the audience was chanting “Run, Ashley, Run!” Of course, they were all women Democrats, that’s a bit of a skewed sample but AJ’s particular skill in life is taking positive feedback out of context and running with it.
Kirsten Gillibrand was on that panel, I believe.
Assley tweeted around that time that her “thing” was introducing two-term Presidents, and she wanted Obama to ask her to introduce him. I think she has hit a brick wall currying favor with the Obamas, despite all the sucking up she has done. For example, she was one of about 200 people invited to a party at the White House on inauguration weekend. Both the Obamas attended, mingled freely with the crowd, and stayed for 3+ hours, from what I heard. Yet NOT ONCE did AJ tweet about meeting POTUS or FLOTUS. I guess maybe she figured she would be SPECIAL even among all those guests (including Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, etc) – you know, because she is a HUMANITARIAN, not just a CELEBRITY, and she’s SMART …I’m sure she was hoping that POTUS/FLOTUS would seek her out among all the celebrities, and that apparently didn’t happen. Nor did she have any official role at the inauguration. I mean, if she had met the first couple – FOR SURE she would have tweeted some a$$-kissing tweet about it.
As for Bill Clinton backing her for the Senate in Kentucky, I think he would only do that if he thought she had a chance, and if nobody he preferred was in the race. And there may be someone he prefers. He is very close friends with the Lundergan family. The father, Jerry Lundergan, is a former chair of the Kentucky Democratic party and a big fundraiser/donor. And, coincidentally, one of the three men that AJ breezed past in DC. He is also the father of Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s current Secretary of State, who is home-grown, a lifelong Kentuckian, beautiful, a lawyer, and someone who has paid her dues in the Democratic Party at both the local and national level; she pulled huge numbers in her campaign for SOS. I read somewhere that Bill Clinton wrote a personal check to support her campaign for SOS. I imagine he would support her rather than Assley Judd, in a heartbeat. She has no baggage, actually lives in Kentucky, and is beloved in the KY Democratic party. SHE might be able to beat McConnell, but I figure she’s not going to run because she’s only been SOS for a year or two. Better to take on Rand Paul in 2016.
AA that’s a great and thoughtful article about Kentucky’s next Senate race. If Assley reads it, she’ll fold up her tent! But then, as Jay said, maybe this has always been about staying in the limelight, and she was never serious about running. This way she gets all the attention, and can back out and pretend she might have won even though she doesn’t have a chance … without actually having to do any campaigning.
As for Obama giving Assley an Ambassadorship, I have long thought that would be a better fit for her ambitions. Because then she doesn’t have to shake a lot of hands and kiss babies and eat rubber chicken and give speeches and talk to the commoners. She just has to suck up to ONE person and she’s in. And she’s shown that she’s good at sucking up to powerful people.
However, would Obama name her to an Ambassadorship? To a country where she actually would want to live? Not likely. And not likely. Then, if Hillary runs in 2016 and is elected, Assley thinks she’s got this great relationship with Bill, like besties, but I SERIOUSLY doubt that would extend to Hillary. In fact, something tells me Hillary doesn’t like movie stars who flirt with her husband, who went to Harvard for 9 months and think they’re geniuses. AJ will definitely campaign for Hillary in 2016, but it’ll probably get her an invite to the inauguration (if Hillary is elected) and probably not much more than that.
At least, that’s my two cents on all of the above!
Thanks yall for letting me know that the brother-in-law is Wy’s husband.
I still can’t believe that people actually think that she is some sort of super pedigree intellectual. Just read some of the forums about. You feel like throwing up how some suck up to her.
The fact she has to a have “trained psychiatrist support animals” accompany her wherever she goes must surely ring alarm bells for people who think that she should run a state and make crucial decisions.
Why don’t the media ever question this fact. There’s enough dirt on her to make a sitcom, yet the media never calls her out on anything. Seems like they encourage the psycho crap she spews out.
It is like she is Teflon coated.
Makes you wonder.
It does indeed make you wonder Jethro. I think that is why I enjoy coming here. At least there are some sane folks who get it.
That dog is about 15 years old. I love animals and hate to say it but baby ain’t long for this lifetime. What happens then?
One last thing, Amy – the smile says it all. The man is positively ecstatic. Freedom feels good!
Jethro and Jay,
I believe the ADA covers emotional support animals as well as animals who provide an actual demonstrable service. Basically all she needed was a note from her doctor (psychotherapist) and she could register her dogs as service animals, which gives her carte blanche to take them EVERYWHERE with her. Restaurants, planes, hotels, you name it. Under the law, nobody is even allowed to ask her what kind of service they provide.
I doubt this would come up as a campaign issue because it’s such a PC topic.
Last fall there was a really sad case of a dog in Tennessee that was thrown from a car, starved and near death. A rescue group called Snooty Giggles took him in and named him Walter, after a local politician who had found/rescued him. He looked just like Assley’s two other dogs, and she became involved in his case, going to the animal hospital and visiting him. Of course she tweeted a gazillion photos of herself with him. I got the impression that she intended to adopt him but unfortunately, he took a turn for the worse and died.
http://www.highlighthollywood.com/2012/05/09/abcs-the-missing-star-ashley-judd-intervenes-saves-walter-the-cackapoo-highlight-hollywood-news/
Animal rescue is a huge thing with me, I help every animal who crosses my path who needs my help, and I cannot stand to see an animal suffering. Of course I prayed that Walter would live, but I confess that a small part of me was relieved that we were not going to have to be subjected to her dragging Walter around for the next 10 years, posing for photo ops as Saint Assley the rescuer.
I heard that she had pledged to pay his vet bills, but I don’t know if she actually did.
People still tweet her about him and she tweets back that “we” are working on “Walter’s Law” to toughen animal abuse laws in Tennessee. I’m not sure what exactly she personally is doing, but I imagine that if anything called Walter’s Law is ever passed in Tennessee, she will be standing on the Capitol steps claiming full credit. Cuz that’s how she rolls.
As for her dog Buttermilk, I think I read in her memoir that her mother gave him to her as a puppy in 1998 so yeah, he’s pushing 15. He’s smallish and very healthy. Small dogs live longer. And female dogs live longer. But at the outside, he could be expected to live to be 18. And you KNOW she’ll be an emotional wreck when he goes.
A few months after Walter died the Snooty Giggles rescue was up for a grant in this national giveaway (millions of dollars, all based on public votes) – Assley instead tweeted to her supporters to support some other charity, which got $100,000 and Snooty Giggles got nothing.
PS I almost felt sorry for her yesterday on Valentine’s Day. Her tweets:
“On Valentine’s Day, what does this thought mean to you? “To love oneself is the beginning of a life long romance.” Oscar Wilde”
“My favorite Valentine was Mom reminding me to brush my teeth after the big heart-shaped box of chocolates she gave me. Now, that’s sweet!”
Nothing about Dario, of course, who was off in Monaco with family and friends, enjoying 100km bike rides along the beautiful Riviera coast.
I wonder where Dario calls home now? Surely not Tennessee. I suspect he’ll spend a lot of time in Europe until the 2013 IndyCar season kicks off.
Their castle in Scotland was put up for sale last April but is no longer on the market. It’s GORGEOUS, though it’s out in the middle of nowhere:
http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2012/05/ashley-judd-and-dario-franchitti-put.html
7 bedrooms, 7 full/half bathrooms, 485 acres. What on earth does a couple who do not intend to have children need with an estate that size?
The pictures inside the house seem rather sterile in a cold creepy way. It needed someone to stage it properly for sale. But now a newly single host can invite people to his place in the country for some killer parties. I’m sure there are plenty of kind good-hearted women who will help out.
Country folk just LUV a good party!
I almost felt sorry for AJ yesterday, but after seeing mama Naomi’s facebook page I didn’t. Clearly the Judd girls like messing with everbodys minds.
Hannah, I think animals are a great therapeutic help. Especially dogs, they are unconditional in their devotion.
AJ is probably surrounded by lots of people that tell her what she wants to hear, but I believe she would find it tough to have any real friends.
Lets face it, she would be high maintenance, everyone would have to agree with her opinion, constantly have to massage her ego, she has to be the absolute center of attention most, if not all of the time. She would be hard to invest in as a true friend when you are unlikely to get much return.
Hence the only beings she relies on for emotional security are her animals.
She is obviously one mixed up woman. Do I feel sorry for her, not really, as in everything in life, you make choices, and reap what you sow.
AJ plans on jerking the Kentucky Dems around for at least two more months….. and then maybe the Kentucky Derby with her hat of course.
http://www.whas11.com/news/politics/Sources-Judd-leaning-toward-Senate-bid-decision-by-Derby-Day-191470551.html
Out of curiosity I did a search for how much AJ has donated to other DEM candidates on OpenSecrets.org. All I could find was $350 for Congressman Steve Cohen (D- Memphis, TN). Where is all the support for the Dems? I was surprised I didn’t see more, but maybe I’m not looking in the right places. I love the fact that AJ lists herself as an actress from Los Angeles, CA 90024. Yes, CALIFORNIA. Has AJ been using politics for self promotion? Just a thought.
AJ is back to retweeting Dario’s tweets. Hasn’t anyone told her that he wants out?
AJ has a company she calls Hillbilly Films. She is obsessed with the whole hillbilly theme. She is the President !
http://401k-plans.findthebest.com/l/495508/Hillbilly-Films-Profit-Sharing-Plan
Even her corp. is a California corp, not KY or TN(both real hillbilly approved states)
Gawd, I love you guys! You totally “get” what is odious about her.
Jethro, I’ve had the exact same thoughts about her not having any friends. Heck, until Dario she never had a boyfriend that lasted more than a few weeks, from what you read about her social life. This is not a person who would be easy to like. Dario was a saint.
AA, just when I think she can’t possibly be running for the Senate, it seems she actually will. I’m going to repost that link over at Chicks on the Right, they have a thread about Ashley called “Ashley Judd gets OWNED” (re: Karl Rove web video).
Did you see this tweet yesterday:
A young friend said something that made us cry: “We love Kentucky. We have hope. We need people to dream dreams as big as our potential.”
That sounds awfully candidate-like.
But…who is this WE she’s talking about? Or is that the royal we? Dunno if you have heard of that, my mom lived in London for 10 years and apparently the reigning monarch would refer to him/herself as “we” so it became known as the “royal we” – my mom used to joke about it occasionally.
Ooh, just googled it. It even has its own wikipedia page:
The majestic plural (pluralis maiestatis in Latin, literally, “the plural of majesty”), is the use of a plural pronoun to refer to a single person holding a high office, such as a monarch, bishop, or pope. It is also called the royal pronoun, the royal “we” or the Victorian “we”. The more general word for the use of we to refer to oneself is nosism, from the Latin nos.[1] It is most commonly used to denote the excellence, power, and dignity of the person who speaks or writes.”
Sounds about right for someone as egotistical as Assley!
I am soooo tempted to tweet back to her an innocent sounding friendly tweet like:
“odd that you use pluralis maiestatis”
and then maybe she’d look it up and realize I was insulting her
Indeed, Assley is incredibly cheap. You can also search for federal campaign contributions here:
http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norindsea.shtml
Look under Judd, Ciminella and Franchitti. The only records are under Judd. Aside from that $350 you mentioned she hasn’t donated a dime to political causes since 2008. Also, you’ll see that she gave $5,000 several years ago and got a refund?
What amazes me is that she was such a big vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries, then switched allegiance to Obama (intoning self-importantly “AT LAST” when he was elected as if it had been her fondest wish to support the first African-American President)… and despite being a darling of Emily’s list, she has donated nothing to any of them recently. I guess she figures making a few campaign calls is her gift to their campaign.
AND… remember how she gave a speech at Planned Parenthood of Indiana in December? Her speaking fee is somewhere north of $50,001 according to a speakers’ bureau web site. She’s in the top bracket, so it’s AT LEAST $50K, could be many times that. PPIN said that her fee was underwritten by a generous anonymous donor.
Then, remember the inauguration? How she attended the All American Ball honoring our military servicemen and tweeted a photo of herself with a wounded veteran (misspelling both his name and his rank). She was paid to attend that also! I emailed the organizers asking what her fee was, and they said “the terms of our celebrity appearances are private.”
And that guy Josh Trevino who had the misfortune to accompany her to Africa? He quoted a woman from Youth AIDS saying that Assley would not go to Cambodia unless they flew her first class, which was a huge dent in their budget but they bit the bullet and did it or they would have had to call off the trip.
So, this “humanitarian” is actually making a cushy living and maintaining her own high profile via free publicity while pretending her heart bleeds for the little people.
BTW, that dinner in Louisville she attended? Also present was this guy Yarmuth who is apparently her biggest (maybe only) supporter in Kentucky Democratic circles. And her uncle is “beloved uncle Mark” (I think Naomi’s brother) whom she drags around to UK basketball games.
I just hope Kentucky Democrats do the math, grow a backbone, and refuse to support her.
Or maybe I don’t hope that. I would love to see her cut to shreds by McConnell in an election.
I suspect that if she does declare, she may win the Democratic primary since other Kentucky candidates seem to be waiting on her to decide. But wouldn’t it be nice if somebody took her on and beat her in the primary?
Hannah!!!!!!! LOVE the ROYAL WE comment. TOO GOOD!!!!
AA – ooh, good find (Hillbilly Films)! That may be something her financial advisor told her to start in order to maximize her 401(k) contributions. I note it was started in 1999 back when she was making good money (and expecting to make more). It has $550K in its retirement plans and I would guess she is the only beneficiary.
If that’s her only retirement plan aside from possibly an IRA, that’s pretty small for somebody who claimed (laughably) to have once been one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. At her peak, she was nowhere near being one of the highest paid actors. IMDB shows very little salary data but lists her highest paycheck as $4MM for “Someone Like You” in 2001 – that’s the era when others like Demi Moore, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock and Cameron Diaz were making $12-20MM per picture.
Watch the beginning of this TedX Nashville speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xurBODwDh2Q
This is the SECOND TIME I have seen her chastising an audience for not replying with enough enthusiasm when she said “good afternoon” at the start of a talk. The other was at the National Press Club. The Mock Dock filters any post with two links in it for moderator approval, so I’ll post that link in the next comment!
Also in the TedX speech at about the 2 minute mark, she tells us how highly paid she was, because of course when you’re talking about your humanitarian work you have to remind people about your movie star salary?
So you don’t have to watch it, here’s a transcript of her bragging:
“Lotta people, when they think of me – Ashley Judd – wonder what the hell happened to her? I semi-retired in 2004. I did a little picture now and then. But then they’d see me in something like “Tooth Fairy” and say “I wonder what happened to her? She’s gained a lot of weight.” Well, my financial planner wondered about the decision that I made too. When I walked away from everything when, it turns out, I was actually one of the highest paid women in the history of Hollywood, probably not adjusting for inflation because Mary Pickford was a big star.”
Yeah, she “retired” in 2004 after she starred in “Twisted” – the worst reviewed movie of the year, it lost $25 million on a $50 million budget. What a coincidence that she “retired” then – even though she continued to make movies after that. My guess is “retirement” is code for – nobody in Hollywood wanted to hire me to headline a big budget movie so I took what I could get – starring roles in indie films nobody saw (hoping lightning would strike and I might finally get an Oscar nod) and bit parts in big Hollywood movies where I played the generic girlfriend/wife/mother (a couple of which starred Morgan Freeman, truly the best friend she ever had, she owes much of her career to him!)
And here’s the National Press Club talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsBY08MgRJM
transcript:
“I have a lot of friends here so I’d actually like to start by saying: Good Afternoon” [pause] “And I’m Southern, so that means you’re supposed to respond in kind, so – TAKE TWO: Good Afternoon.” [pause again, scattered response]
Then she calls out all her “friends” in the room, by name. One doesn’t reply, and she confesses “just an email buddy, maybe he doesn’t exist in real life.”
Yup, Jethro, that’s “friends” in Assley Judd’s life. When you don’t actually have any, everybody is your “friend.” Not that you’d invite them to dinner or anything, or lend them money if they needed it, or go and pick them up if their car broke down. You know, like REAL LIFE friends do. But everybody’s her friend when she’s giving a speech. Or tweeting. Even people she has never met.
And for those who haven’t monitored her twitter feed for the last year, conspicuously absent except for rare occasions, was any mention of her mother Naomi and her half-sister Wynonna. NEVER mentioned Wynonna’s hubby Cactus Moser until just this past week.
Now that Dario has left her, she probably figures the dysfunctional Judd family is all she’s got, so she better get back in their good graces. She’s lucky that Wynonna is such a big-hearted person who welcomed her back with open arms.
I think while she thought her marriage to Dario was solid, she distanced herself from the Judds and felt like she had been given a new family. For example, this tweet on December 9th:
@MFranchitti @DanielaMozz @imciviera @dariofranchitti @CFranchitti
Beautifully memorable wedding, love being a wife/sister/daughter/cousin.
Of course, that was about the time that she started crazily tweeting Dario once or twice a day, so I’m guessing maybe he had already told her he wanted out and she was trying to do damage control. On Twitter!
did you see her lastest tweet re running?:
Friday Foster @Yeyo2Zuri
@AshleyJudd And info about your senate run?! I’ll work for you in Louisville! @GinsburgJobs & I just discussed your need to run, today.
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3 hrs ashley judd @AshleyJudd
@Yeyo2Zuri @GinsburgJobs Thanks. We will need you! if I do this!
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Amy, I saw that – and gagged. I guess she went to one dinner in Louisville with a few Democrats who said flattering things to her and of course in her head she’s already elected. She has this amazing, almost enviable, ability to filter out reality and just focus on the flattering things people say about her.
Sounds like she is shoring up for a run at the senate. Some people say that she would get hammered in a open debate.
I don’t see her democrat minders letting her get in such a position. It will be a “presidential” type campaign with plenty of media attention on her, more so her “celebrity” status. The invited left wing media will ask her the easy questions, as always just letting her speak. Her answers will be scripted.
The organization will trot out her “celebrity good friends” as referees and to entice crowds.
Remember, she makes an art of being the victim. Any personal attacks on her will be deflected as an attack on all women and the working class she “defends”. She may get the sympathy or underdog vote.
Her opposition will have to be as cunning to outdo the publicity machine that will en-company her if or when she decides to have a go. It won’t be a easy or quick execution of her as many might think.
I think the apparent discontent with Mitch is so great, people are willing to ignore the facts and vote for her as a protest. That is the real long term concern.
I hope the people of Kentucky take a good look at their future messiah before taking a vote if she decides to run and realize what they could be in for.
Her ego and self importance is such that if elected she would envisage herself in time as a future commander in chief. Think about that scenario everyone. Might not be as laughable as you think if people give her the opportunity to start with.
Jethro, you are fabulous! And I suspect you are right about everything, what a dreadful thought!
I hope the Democrats of Kentucky will take a good look at her chances of election, and select instead a home grown Kentuckian without all the baggage, to put up against McConnell in the general election. But I suspect that if she wants to run, all the other Democrats will back off and hand her the nomination. It’s absolutely mind-boggling. She doesn’t even LIVE in Kentucky!
There’s only so much “handling” you can do with a Senate candidate. She has NEVER debated anyone in her life. Do you really think she can entirely avoid debating McConnell?
She knows nothing about foreign policy, and nothing about the economy. She doesn’t even pretend to know anything about those topics, or to even be interested in them. Her interests are quite limited, actually.
If she does get the nomination, I will personally write an email to the McConnell campaign giving them ALL the dope I have learned about her over the past year of watching her career with a combination of fascination and growing horror
But I’m sure they’ll come up with plenty on their own.
Jethro, you should hie yourself over to Chicks On The Right and find the post called “Ashley Judd gets OWNED” – lots of people are commenting over there, and it’s maybe a more appropriate place to discuss politics. In fairness to Mock Dockers who are not conservatives…
Good point Hannah, I will have a look at that. My apologies to any potential Kentucky voters, but don’t apologize for thinking she’s a pain in the ass.
She is truly pathetic. She posted a picture of Dario and her at a game with the caption awesome picture from a great win and she calls Dario “super-cute.”
p.S. to Hannah’s point about this not being a political site, she is correct and I apologize if I offended anyone with my right-wing rantings.
Did you see the picture she tweeted wearing the UK 2012 NCAA champion ring that a “friend” let her borrow? Yeah, probably some player from last year whom she just met, that’s about the level of “friends” she has.
But then someone tweets to her:
@AshleyJudd @jefflipack @dariofranchitti Any girl who loves #bouncyBall and Carr Racing NEEDS to be a #Senator so sez I a @KentuckyColonel
And she writes back:
I hadn’t thought of that. You’re right! “@jefflipack A NCAA championship and a Indy 500 ring on the same hand. NICE!” @dariofranchitti
So, is she wearing an Indy 500 ring? And if so, WHY?
I see she still has *something* on her wedding finger.
And why the hell does she keep tweeting to Dario? Tell me he’s not reconsidering. Or maybe she is just the most tone deaf person in the world because once you’re getting divorced, you really should stop tweeting photos of your soon-to-be-ex-husband.
You all will remember how she and the executive producer of “Missing” were giving interviews before it aired, already talking about their plans for Season 2 in Sub-Saharan Africa, blah blah blah.
Then when it was canceled after one season, and a few followers tweeted to ask about season 2, with a completely straight face she said “it was a 10 episode experience, on to new and wonderful adventures.”
Then it was submitted for consideration at the Emmys in the Mini-Series category. Thus redefining every crappy show that gets canceled after one season as a mini-series.
And now, when someone questions her about Kentucky, this is how she replies:
@ashleyjudd: I am enjoying the Mizzou at AR game far more than ours.
@Wildest_KY_Cat: @AshleyJudd “ours” as in UK, or “ours” as in the state you live?
@ashleyjudd: @Wildest_KY_Cat Ha ha. I have my own bedroom in 5 family homes in KY. nice try.
Suuuure. “Missing” was a mini-series and Assley Judd is a Kentucky resident.
Oh, but wait. That photo of her wearing the NCAA 2012 champions ring? The guy in the photo with her is wearing a Barack Obama 2012 sticker on his lapel. The odds of someone wearing that post-November 6, 2012? Zero. That’s an old photo.
Plus, she has a bit of a suntan ring on her right wrist where a watch would go.
That photo is waaaaay pre-divorce announcement. so of course she would still be wearing the wedding ring.
BTW, just saw the trailer for “Olympus Has Fallen.” She plays FLOTUS who (apparently) dies early on when the car she’s riding in slides off a snowy bridge.
And…who plays the Secretary of State? None other than Morgan Freeman.
Seriously, does she owe her ENTIRE career to him? He co-starred in two of the three top movies she made back in the late 1990′s. Recently he’s apparently gotten her gigs on Dolphin Tail AND Olympus Has Fallen. Does he have a clause in his contract that they have to give her a role or something?
I’m sure the movie will do well, because the plot sounds awesome, and the cast is great, except for Ass. Maybe she did Morgan too, and will tell tales (“tails”) so he has to give her roles.
Gotta disagree with you about the plot, Amy. People are already saying it’s “Die Hard” meets “Air Force One.” AND, there is another movie coming out this year about the White House under siege.
But you’re right, with one exception it’s a fantastic cast.
Hannah, your comment about the photo being old – spot on! I noticed a green shirt under the white crochet wrap. A couple of googles later, behold:
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/jxcnpzyys3I/Ashley+Judd+Rodney+Crowell+Tennesseans+Obama/WFG5BiRTIEv
She was at an October 2012 benefit. Posting that photo now, she thinks she’s being clever. But as Mamma Naomi said, she’s not that smart!
Hey wait a second! What the heck was she doing at a “Tennesseans” Benefit for Obama….if she’s from Kentucky????
hahahahaha
Jay,
Nuthin’ gets past us eagle-eyed Mock Dockers! While she does wear the same clothes over and over again (she’s notoriously cheap, even with her wardrobe), I compared the two photos and they were quite likely taken on the same day. Same necklace, same bracelet on left wrist, same earrings, same top, same Obama sticker, same hairstyle.
Buuut, no ring on right ring finger in the photo you found…
Somebody should tweet her back to call her out on it.
I talked to a state rep in Kentucky yesterday about Ashley Judd for Senate…..she said that most people are convinced that it is just a ploy to get her puffy face in the limelight, but Dems are dismayed as she is “sucking the life out of efforts to interest credible candidates”….Republicans are hoping she is serious. Personally, I’d love to see her campaigning in Eastern Kentucky…she’d soon wish she was back on one of her Africa jaunts!
Wow Mikey, good intel! Was the state rep a Democrat or Republican?
I would never underestimate the size of Assley Judd’s GI-NORMOUS ego. Maybe she started entertaining the idea because she liked all the flattering attention, but as Jethro said, she is enormously ambitious and hugely overrates her own talents, and tends to let flattery go to her head, so I think she may actually be considering it. Now, is she temperamentally suited to a long hard campaign? To living in Washington DC and working really long hours every day? I don’t think so. The movie career would absolutely have to be put on hold. The “humanitarian” junkets as well (at least, for the NGO she reps). If the election is in 2014, she would take office in January 2015, serve until January 2021, when she’s 52 years old.
And I have yet to see her give ONE opinion on foreign affairs or the US economy. ONE. Surely, the KY Democrats will want to vet her to see if she is even semi-literate on these topics (which of course she isn’t).
Not to mention, what if her muffy fluffy support dog Buttermilk dies in 2014? Won’t she have to go into intensive inpatient therapy to get over it?
And when exactly is she going to establish residence in KY? Now, the US Constitution is the authority on qualifications for the Senate, and it’s very vague, it merely says that a candidate must be an “occupant” of the state on election day. But surely, she will seek legal advice about that, and I cannot believe that having a “bedroom” reserved for her in five different Kentucky homes qualifies as being a Kentucky occupant!
Oh, and about her complete lack of knowledge of foreign affairs or the domestic economy? I don’t actually see that as a huge impediment. She will be told what to think by her Democratic handlers, if/when she becomes the presumptive Democratic candidate, and she will memorize her lines and not deviate from the script. She’s REALLY good at that
Hannah, the state rep is a Republican in a mostly rural, blue collar district where she has to work both sides of the fence….and she had heard plenty of comments from both sides. My suggestion to Ashley is that she watch Rory Kennedy’s documentary American Hollow (lol)!
I’m not sure that I could stand reading Ashley’s book, but I will say that the paperback has a better cover than the hardback. Anyway, she is so unbelievable that I have a file of magazine articles about her. Back in 2007, she told Redbook that her treatment lasted 47 days starting in 2006. That profile is full of other great quotes, such as, “My first couple of [humanitarian] trips I was so angry all the time. My idea of a good time after a day in the field was to go kick some ambassador’s ass. But I’ve grown up a little. I will always have an insatiable desire to help the lost children of this world. Well, duh. It dovetails perfectly with my own rawness.”
Every time I read that quote ‘It’s unconscionable to breed, with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished countries’, I feel like someone’s been scratching nails on a chalkboard. That’s like saying ‘It’s unconscionable to eat, with the number of people who are starving to death’.
Also, it’s not just in the impoverished countries that people starve. There are people living under the poverty line in the western, developed countries too.
My point is, it’s just bogus of her to compare her life AT ALL with the people in those countries she’s talking about.
I must say that I was surprised to hear about their split. I don’t wish divorce on anyone. I guess it’s difficult to just switch off all feelings for someone just because you’re not together anymore. If someone didn’t want to be with you anymore, I don’t think any of us could just stop loving them immediately, or not still refer to them as ‘love of my life’.
Having/not having children is certainly a very big issue in a relationship and if one person wants to do one thing, and the other person wants to do the other, it could certainly break up that couple. At the same time, I don’t appreciate men leaving their wives/gfs, just because they disagree on having/not having kids. You love HER, not just her uterus.
Also, most of us gain or lose a lot of weight during our marriages and that’s not a reason for anyone to leave their spouse. We’ll also get wrinkles as we get older, and is that a reason to leave someone? Just because we don’t look young anymore? I can’t comment on her face, as it could’ve been steroids, or weight gain, an allergic reaction or something else. I would hope that someone who seems as mature as Dario wouldn’t be as superficial as to leave his wife just because her appearance has changed.
He has supported Ashley through her mental illness and her treatment at Shades of Hope. It’s not an easy thing to take care of someone with her mental condition. But having depression is not the same as having to put up with someone’s constant need for attention and narcissism. He has his own needs too.
Having said all that, I do hope that Dario finds a lovely woman and make a happy life together, and with children, if that’s what they want.
As for Ashley… well, I’m sure she’ll get into relationships too, and I don’t want her to be miserable (I think she’s already rather unhappy), but I don’t actually want to think a lot about her…
I hope she doesn’t run for Senate. She thinks she’s a feminist and doing us a favour, but I actually detect a streak of misandry in there…
*shudders*