Ashley Judd is one of those relatively low-key stars that I enjoy. She seems to have settled into a relatively quiet life in Tennessee with her husband, race car driver Dario Franchitti. And Ashley’s got goals bigger than the occasional film role. She was just accepted into a master’s program at Harvard’s Kennedy School, aimed at “mid-career professionals.”
Congrats to Ashley Judd, who somehow manages to be an Angelina Jolie-style without making a scene of it, Angelina Jolie-style. The actress has enrolled in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mid-Career Master in Public Administration (MC/MPA) program. The MC/MPA is designed to “increase the knowledge and skills of well established, high-performing professionals, who seek to enhance their public service careers or to move from the private sector to a leadership position in either the public or non-profit sectors.”
Former program graduates include Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Ashley Judd may not be elected valedictorian, but her classmates will definitely vote her “Easiest Name to Pronounce.”
[From Evil Beet]
I wonder what she’s planning on doing with this degree? According to Wikipedia, Ashley has a long history of being involved with charitable causes. They noted that she’s the “Global Ambassador for YouthAIDS, an education and prevention program of the international NGO Population Services International (PSI), promoting AIDS prevention and treatment.” Perhaps Ashley wants to take on a bigger role in the non-profit sector. It’s definitely an unusual route for an actress to take, and I’m excited to learn what her ultimate goal is.
Here’s Ashley attending the wedding ceremony of Salma Hayek and Francois Henry Pinault in Venice on April 25th. Images thanks to INF Photo.
Yikes, what happened to her face??!
Looks like she got fillers.
She’s a cuckoo. I think she looks like she has aged a bit.
She’s 41…of course she’s aged. What the hell do you people expect??
Her left eye looks a little wonky.
@ Kelly:
It doesn’t seem like she aged naturally, is what my comment was about.
Her face looks puffy and tight at the same time, like she’s been using botox & fillers.
She used to be so pretty; I don’t think I would have recognized her.
i think she’s gotten fillers in her cheeks, too. she has that chipmunk look that meg ryan and nicole kidman have.
Good for her. She’s actually trying to make a difference in the world without alerting the media every 2 seconds about all her charity work.
Wow. Judgmental much? It makes me curious to see what everyone else looks like….and I’d bet you probably think Bryman is an excellent place to get an education if you’re judging Ms. Judd. *snorts*
Well good for Ashley! I am always a proponent of higher education. And Harvard isn’t something to sneeze at.
She probably looks different because it’s been awhile since anybody has seen her. Ashley may have been in a few movies in the past five years but nothing of note. I’m sure that crack about alerting the media is about Angelina Jolie but comparing Angelina to Ashley is ridiculous. Angelina is a much bigger celebrity. Ashley isn’t a big name even at her peak in the late ’90s early 2000’s.
Actually, Annie, I look just fine and I am well educated (not that education is everything, so there is really no reason to “snort”).
I’m not judging AJudd on her looks, but on her (misguided) vanity.
She used to be gorgeous and still would have been if she would have just left her face alone and aged gracefully! I understand the pressure in Hollywood to look young, but I think it’s very sad to see beautiful women mess with their face too much when they get older.
Especially when they are getting a master’s degree at Harvard.
Maybe it’s just a bad picture. Anyway, I’ve never cared for her, she always seemed so impressed with herself.
Jeane:
How can you be so sure that she’s done anything to her face?
How do you KNOW she has vanity issues?
Until Ashley comes out & says something along the lines of…’Oh crap my botox is busted’, you are judging her unfairly for what YOU see wrong with her looks.
HATE her! She is insufferable. I would love to be a fly on the wall in her classes at Harvard when she starts blathering her pseudo-intellectual, new-agey crap. Most of her classmates at Harvard – the ones who have have actually EARNED the right to be there – will think she’s a joke. A small but significant minority, however, will be just like Assley: spoiled, grandiose, entitled kids whose rich, powerful daddies pulled strings in order to purchase their mediocre offspring a fine pedigree. I mean, she only FINALLY got her bachelor’s degree 2 years ago, and from UK at that. Bitch, please…
I’m not a fabulous judge of who’s had plastic surgery, but I don’t think Ashley has. She’s always had chipmunk cheeks, even when she was thin. And she’s definitely gained weight over the last few years, so a fuller face is only to be expected.
Anyway, it’s great that she’s going back to school, and I know she’s supposedly a very intelligent woman, but I can’t help cynically thinking that celebrities get into Harvard, Yale or Princeton based in large part on their status/profile, so I’m never that impressed when I read that another one of ’em is off to the Ivy League.
How the hell do you know that she hasn’t EARNED her place in the class? And what the HELL is wrong with a degree from the UK?!
LOADS of people don’t finish their degrees in what other people think is a timely manner, for all kinds of reasons. Life happens to the best of us, despite our best intentions.
Judgmental what?! Bitch please…
Shannon, I agree!
Actually, I don’t hate her, but she does like to impress people with her “intellect”
Thank you Bodhi.
Shannon: I find your comments to be so over-the-top, foaming-at-the-mouth mean that I wonder what your problem is. Ashley was NOT spoiled, privileged, nor did she have a rich daddy. Her father left them when she was a little girl. They grew up poor.
So she “finally” got her Bachelor’s degree at 39? Now she’s 41 and working on a Master’s degree at Harvard and still you snarl at her? I don’t care if she’s after a Master’s degree in finger painting, it’s fucking HARVARD. Hello? Jealous, much?
I will be 43 on Sunday and I’m working on a Master’s degree too–in Forensics. Does that mean I qualify for some of your vitriol?
I will never understand people like you.
Ashley was great as Swoozie Kurt’s daughter in that show Sisters. Julianne Phillips totally rocked as well.
In an age of anti-intellectualism, Ashley rocks.
There are enough dumb-asses out their collecting paychecks they don’t earn, let alone deserve.
Congratulations Ashley Judd!!
BTW…………..
If a person writing an article and wants to get noticed they mention Angelina Jolie, how fair (unfair) is that?
Some people have jobs and do not do it. However, Angelina does her job. Angelina’s job is to bring PUBLIC ATTENTION to the UNHCR, so that people may PRIVATELY (if they so wish) contribute any way they see fit. Other things are given press whether or not she wants it to be!!
I had to comment as they brought her up (they, the writers brought up Angelina).
I wouldn’t have recognized her. She didn’t look this old even a few years ago, what happened?
Ya know, she has been very public with her issues with depression. Perhaps the drugs she has been taking are giving her the “puffy ” look. She stays out of the limelight and lives her life. I think she looks great. “walk a mile” they say- I don’t think she had a really great upbringing yet she has done well and kept it classy
Shannon- she never knew her father- he left Naomi and the kids. And seriously talking about rich,entitled kids that get in on Daddy’s dime:Harvard hello
Bitch please
As a University of Kentucky grad I don’t think she ever earned her bachelor’s degree; sad since she is our most famous alumni.
I’ve always liked her. She doesn’t speak the way she does to make people feel inferior. She speaks that way because she reads and she has a passion for learning.
Lots of folks are uncomfortable around people with large vocabularies and forward personalities…thus, the “hate.”
She’s married, out of the limelight…she hasn’t had work done. For God’s sake, she gained 10 pounds and aged a little. Sheesh!
I disagree with Ashley on just about everything she gets involved with, but I love passion and I love patriotism…and I love women who are not ashamed of their intellect and knowledge base (no matter where they came about earning it).
Who cares what she looks like. She’s going to have a masters degree from Harvard. What the hell is wrong with you people?!
I hope she learns that a wolf’ life is not more important than a dead baby..
Jeane, my face looks like that too, usually after a night of vodka and not enough sleep. Or after an allergy attack. Or after…well, you get the picture.
It’s not always “botox and fillers.”
Good to read, she continues to move forward with her life. More to be seen, but her degree plan does equate with her interest in charitable work.
I don’t like how she treats her sister, in the interviews I’ve seen about Wynona’s weight. Their mother is the same way; arrogant – and they don’t come across as nice.
Uh, my “rich, entitled daddies” bit is merely an analogy. She may’ve been born poor, but she certainly wasn’t once she entered her teens/early adulthood. She lived well off her talented sister (and mother), and parlayed their fame into a lucrative acting career for herself. Ashley got into the Harvard masters program because she is rich, influential, and privileged – period. Any other nobody who barely finished her degree wouldn’t have even been considered.
And yes, I can’t stand her. Everyone has some celebrity that drives them mad. She is mine.
Shannon,
You are obviously unfamiliar with Harvard’s admissions policy. This actress is hardly rich, influential and privileged, compared to many, many Harvard applicants.
She earned her admission and, like every applicant, her life experience surely influenced the quality of her application.
Please familiarize yourself with Harvard’s admissions process before making such inane comments. merci.
Believe it or not, Ashley has been involved with YouthAIDS and public health issues longer than Angelina Jolie. Check it out for yourself.
From “The Price of Admission” by Daniel Golden:
-over the past ten years Harvard has admitted one child for every major donor
– Harvard maintains a “Z-list” for well-connected but underqualified students, who are quietly admitted on the condition that they wait a year to enroll
-Children of Harvard’s “Committee on University Resources” (COUR) – a group who typically donate $1 million or more to the school, enjoy near-guaranteed admission (336 out of 340 kids).
C’mon, people…you can’t REALLY believe that her SAT and GRE scores are really that good…
I earned a master’s degree from Harvard (school of education) and while there were people from rich backgrounds as well as poor, EVERYONE had to work their asses off once they got in there. Your daddy can’t help you if you don’t do the work.
Ashley did obtain all the requirements to graduate from the University of Ky. She did not attend graduate. She does have her diploma in hand thanks to Ellen D. I can tell you this..she will work hard just as everyone else will at Harvard.
No matter how you manage to get into any program at Harvard the simple fact is that you have to work and study hard. The professors there are very demanding and many pile on the work and make you work your ass off and be a critical thinker before any grade above a B plus is given. So more power to Ashley for meeting those standards. I didn’t go to Harvard but my cousin did and she told me there are many older, even old people getting degrees there because they have the intellect and drive to get things done. More power to Ashley for being that type of person.
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