Ashley Judd

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will not be facing a challenge from actress Ashley Judd when he runs for re-election next year. Though he may be happy to have avoided the physical comparison -- she, after all, played Marilyn Monroe in a movie, while he looks like an ancient sea turtle dressed in a $1,000 suit -- the Kentucky Republican may miss having such an attractive target for his attack machine. Mr. McConnell is not all that popular back home. Democrats, of course, can't stand him, and tea party Republicans may like him even less.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will not be facing a challenge from actress Ashley Judd when he runs for re-election next year. Though he may be happy to have avoided the physical comparison -- she, after all, played Marilyn Monroe in a movie, while he looks like an ancient sea turtle dressed in a $1,000 suit -- the Kentucky Republican may miss having such an attractive target for his attack machine. Mr. McConnell is not all that popular back home. Democrats, of course, can't stand him, and tea party Republicans may like him even less.

"Someone Like You" is a relationship comedy in which the only real relationship is the film's desperate courtship of the female audience. Based on Laura Zigman's novel "Animal Husbandry," this chick flick never should have made it out of the incubator. Zigman's book was joke-laden fiction in the Carrie Fisher tradition and centered on the hyperbolic theory that men, like male cows, are drawn only to females who are new to them. This "New Cow" theory could have been the basis of a slick adult cartoon or a "Sex in the City" episode.

DVD Crossing Over * 1/2 (1 1/2 stars) Starring Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta. Directed by Wayne Kramer. Released by the Weinstein Co. $19.98. In what has become the preferred fall-back formula for message movies coming out of Hollywood these days, a group of disparate Los Angelenos, with vague connections to one another, grapple with U.S. immigration policy and its repercussions (think Crash, but focused on illegal immigrants). The result is a hodgepodge of ill-developed story lines that trip over one another in their attempt to tug at the audience's empathetic heartstrings.

Ashley Judd has the face that launched a thousand conventional women-in-jeopardy movies -- not just her own, which usually depend on Judd's push and drive for their ratcheting momentum, but the rip-offs on TV, often on the Lifetime Channel. The genre as we now know it belongs to her; she and her writers and directors propelled it in liberating directions. A Judd suspense film like Double Jeopardy (1999), in which a foul husband sets up his wife for a fake murder, doesn't just reverse the moral and sexual dynamics of hard-shelled Hollywood melodramas about a femme fatale and a male sucker (Double Indemnity is the towering prototype)

"Eye of the Beholder" is supposed to raise questions about obsession, voyeurism and desire in a high-tech world, but the only question it poses successfully is this: When do two perfectly appealing actors like Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd finally spend all of their personal capital with audiences by appearing in horrible movies? McGregor has won filmgoers over in such films as "Shallow Grave," "Trainspotting" and "Little Voice." But then he blows it by lending his imprimatur to trash like "Nightwatch," "The Phantom Menace" and "Rogue Trader," a made-for-TV movie on Cinemax.

What hath "The Silence of the Lambs" wrought?It was inevitable, when that film swept the 1991 Academy Awards, that a bevy of imitators would begin to clog the production pipeline, the drain screen of which let "Seven" escape onto screens in 1995.As if that particular abomination weren't enough, another has slipped through Hollywood's dubious quality-control system. "Kiss the Girls," an adaptation of the James Patterson novel directed by Gary Fleder, takes sadistic crypto-sexism to new depths (which happen to be attractively appointed with Gothically dripping candles and Craftsman sconces)

No figure in American entertainment has been more studied, dissected and mythologized than Marilyn Monroe. Which raises the question: Do we really need a two-hour film whose fundamental insight is that she may have been her own worst enemy?Probably not."Norma Jean and Marilyn," premiering at 9 tonight on HBO, offers the actress' life as a struggle for control between the real-life Norma Jean Baker and the make-believe Marilyn Monroe, and dramatizes the point by casting different actresses to play each personality.

Simon Birch is a little guy dealing with big issues. Like, why did God put him on this Earth?Given that he was the smallest baby ever born at Gravestown Memorial Hospital, and that his survival constituted something of a miracle, this is no small issue for Simon. Surely, he reasons, God has a reason for creating someone so special. Surely, Simon is destined for some heroic purpose; if only he knew what it was.lTC Such is the central mystery behind "Simon Birch," an old-fashioned tearjerker in the best sense of the term -- a shamelessly manipulative heartstring-tugger that defies the viewer to maintain a dry eye. Few will rise to the challenge.

Ever tried your darndest to avoid hearing about the plots twists of a movie that you're planning to see, only to have some unthinking clod give it away?The makers of "Double Jeopardy" suffer from that problem, except it's one of their own making, because the trailers that have been airing for weeks in theaters and on television pretty much reveal all the relevant twists and turns in the film.Nothing happens to Ashley Judd, a wife who is framed for the murder of her husband, or Tommy Lee Jones, as the parole officer who pursues her, that the trailers haven't let the viewer in on already.

'Heroes' stars split up, but remain friends, according to sources Heroes stars Milo Ventimiglia and Hayden Panettiere have ended their relationship, People magazine reported yesterday on its Web site. "They lead different lifestyles. He's 31, she's 19. She still has growing up to do and he's very low-key," a source close to the couple tells People. "The relationship never seemed like it had legs." The couple, who spent part of 2007 trying to hide their relationship, is still on amicable terms, another source says.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Have you seen the trailers for Ashley Judd's latest performance? They've been all over TV. Terrific stuff. She's a race driver's wife, running barefoot in a pouring rain down the pit lane at Indianapolis, soaking wet, hair and dress stuck to her skin, shivering more with joy than cold - just ecstatic. She's trying to get to victory lane to kiss her husband, who has just become the first Scotsman to win the Indianapolis 500 since Jim Clark in 1965, by gambling that rain would cut short the race before he ran out of fuel.

CANNES, France -- Ron Howard said don't see his movie, The Da Vinci Code; a nun kissed the red carpet and recited a rosary; and a man dressed like a Louis XIV dandy with cats perched on his arm entertained strollers along the Croisette. Just another opening day at the Cannes Film Festival, which yesterday welcomed the world for its 59th edition. Less-than-divine early reviews of The Da Vinci Code had director Howard turning the other cheek during an afternoon press conference. He said he expected more "positive adjectives" to accompany the religious thriller before its U.S. release tomorrow.

Ashley Judd has the face that launched a thousand conventional women-in-jeopardy movies -- not just her own, which usually depend on Judd's push and drive for their ratcheting momentum, but the rip-offs on TV, often on the Lifetime Channel. The genre as we now know it belongs to her; she and her writers and directors propelled it in liberating directions. A Judd suspense film like Double Jeopardy (1999), in which a foul husband sets up his wife for a fake murder, doesn't just reverse the moral and sexual dynamics of hard-shelled Hollywood melodramas about a femme fatale and a male sucker (Double Indemnity is the towering prototype)

The heroine of the snappy, sexy thriller Twisted is a hard-drinking San Francisco homicide detective (Ashley Judd) who endures sudden, puzzling blackouts while on the trail of a serial killer. Yet in a happy irony, the movie leaves you feeling perked-up and clearheaded. Twisted is an unusual forensic crime film because it's witty and sophisticated as well as taut and creepy. Judd's smart, can-do cop goes in for one-night stands, often with tough customers - and the male bodies that mount up belong to her eight-hour fun-mates.

Many of us think that Carl Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress was one of the best films of the '90s - and that Denzel Washington should have won an Oscar for playing private eye Easy Rawlins in it and not for The Hurricane, Malcolm X or Training Day. Compared to that film noir and Franklin's earlier One False Move, his new thriller, High Crimes, is a middling achievement and a major disappointment. This yuppie nightmare centers on a high-powered San Francisco lawyer (Ashley Judd) and a husband (Jim Caviezel)

INDIANAPOLIS -- Have you seen the trailers for Ashley Judd's latest performance? They've been all over TV. Terrific stuff. She's a race driver's wife, running barefoot in a pouring rain down the pit lane at Indianapolis, soaking wet, hair and dress stuck to her skin, shivering more with joy than cold - just ecstatic. She's trying to get to victory lane to kiss her husband, who has just become the first Scotsman to win the Indianapolis 500 since Jim Clark in 1965, by gambling that rain would cut short the race before he ran out of fuel.

Some show biz families are fairly easy to sort out. It doesn't take a subscription to People to know the difference between Wynonna and Ashley Judd (one sings, the other doesn't), Eric and Julia Roberts (she's the one married to Lyle Lovett), or Tom and Dick Smothers (Mom always liked Dick best).Working On: The solo album he's been promising since 1984.RandyFull Name: Steven Randall JacksonFamily Rank: Second youngest (born Oct. 29, 1961)Musical Role: Conga, keyboards; replaced Jermaine in Jacksons.

"Someone Like You" is a relationship comedy in which the only real relationship is the film's desperate courtship of the female audience. Based on Laura Zigman's novel "Animal Husbandry," this chick flick never should have made it out of the incubator. Zigman's book was joke-laden fiction in the Carrie Fisher tradition and centered on the hyperbolic theory that men, like male cows, are drawn only to females who are new to them. This "New Cow" theory could have been the basis of a slick adult cartoon or a "Sex in the City" episode.

"Eye of the Beholder" is supposed to raise questions about obsession, voyeurism and desire in a high-tech world, but the only question it poses successfully is this: When do two perfectly appealing actors like Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd finally spend all of their personal capital with audiences by appearing in horrible movies? McGregor has won filmgoers over in such films as "Shallow Grave," "Trainspotting" and "Little Voice." But then he blows it by lending his imprimatur to trash like "Nightwatch," "The Phantom Menace" and "Rogue Trader," a made-for-TV movie on Cinemax.