Ashley Judd's Other Talent

Friday June 25, 2004 06:00 AM EDT

Ashley Judd

RICK MACKLER/RANGEFINDERS/GLOBE

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yahoo Buzz
• E-mail

Perhaps you never outgrow being raised in a family full of talented people. After growing up in the shadow of her singing duo mother, Naomi, and sister Wynonna, Ashley Judd became a huge star in her own right, of course. But when we asked her recently whether she identified with Linda Lee Porter, wife of composer Cole Porter, whom she plays in De-Lovely (opening in limited release July 2), she said, "I think I relate to her a lot. If I know how to do something, it's be in a room with a talented person." Director Irwin Winkler added of Judd: "If I said to Ashley, 'I want you to jump off that building,' she would say to me, 'Where do you want me to land?' But when I said to her, 'I want you to sing a couple of songs,' she said, 'Wait a minute. Don't ask me to jump off that building,' because of her family and the competition with her mother and her sister. But I thought she did a wonderful job, and once I explained to her how important it was, she was great."

No More Wire Hangers!
When you have the most fabulous clothes in the world at your fingertips, obviously you're not going to store them on just any old hangers from the dry cleaners, right? Turns out some stars are more, well, passionate about their closet accessories than others. Enter Devon Rifkin, president of Hangers.com, who counts Jennifer Lopez and Kimora Lee Simmons among his clients. Some stars even dole out the big bucks for their businesses: Hangers.com supplies the Elton John Store at Caesars Palace Las Vegas and P. Diddy's Sean John boutiques. The hangers are such a hit that Rifkin tells us he's become used to getting frantic phone calls from celebs' personal assistants: "They call with hanger emergencies, and hope that we have things in stock and can ship same day. It's like we're over-nighting a liver or something."

Model Child
How does German model Claudia Schiffer feel now that she and her husband, British movie producer Matthew Vaughn, are expecting their second child? "Obviously, I am delighted to be expecting again!" she says. "Matthew and I are so excited that (firstborn son, 17-month-old) Caspar will have a brother or sister of about the same age to grow up with, and being parents has brought us such enjoyment and satisfaction – something that I am sure will only increase with another child."

Free Association
We asked Queer Eye for the Straight Guy design guru Thom Filicia for his quick takes on a few hot topics.
South Beach Diet: "A lot of sex"
Summer Olympics in Athens: "Car exhaust"
2012 Olympics in NYC: "Gays as far as the eyes can see"
Bill Clinton's memoirs: "Read the cigar chapter"
Martha Stewart's show on hiatus: "Upsetting. That's sad. Unfortunate. She decorated the whole world, she needs a break."
Gwyneth Paltrow as a mom: "Gorgeous"

More on AOL

• More on AOL

Caught in the Act
Spotted Recently:
• Edie Falco, in New York's Central Park for the Circle of Friends New York 10K race, sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation, aimed at getting women to stop smoking. "I was a two-and-a-half-pack a day smoker for years and years," she told us. "But when I quit, it was cold turkey. I just decided I was done."

• Glenn Close and Yoko Ono, at the opening of the first boathouse on New York's Harlem River in 100 years, under the direction of Bette Midler, founder of the New York Restoration Project.

• Miss America Ericka Dunlap, entering The Old Homestead Steak House at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, planning to order a "nice T-bone."

• By LAURA DOWNEY, LINDA TRISCHITTA, BRYAN ALEXANDER, LEE WOHLFERT, DIANE HERBST and SANDY POSNAK