Ashley Judd or the unforgettable back.

Preliminary note: This opinion column was originally published in Spanish in the newspaper El Correo del Golfo, where the author signs with his first name (Dixon Moya), which can be read here:https://www.elcorreo.ae/opinion/dixon-moya/inolvidable-espalda-ashley-judd/20240902085206163605.html

I confess that I have sinned, at least in my thoughts, and to make matters worse, it was during a mass in Managua, Nicaragua, almost 20 years ago, when I was serving as a diplomatic service in the Embassy of Colombia in that country. That sinful act occurred when I met Ashley Judd, or more exactly the back of her neck and part of her back.

For those who are not sufficiently cinephile, Ashley Judd is an American actress of film and television, who began her career in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In 1991 she was introduced as a promising actress in the film Ruby in Paradise (1994), since then she has participated in notable films such as Smoke (1995), Heat (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Double Jeopardy (1999), Bug (2006). The younger ones have known her for a character in the Divergent series.

In 2002 she played Tina Modotti in Frida, the film that starred and was produced by her friend Salma Hayek. It turns out that the two actresses visited Nicaragua in 2006, in the middle of a solidarity campaign against AIDS. Ambassador Melba Martínez, RIP, asked our colleague and friend Andrés Gáfaro and the undersigned columnist to attend one of the events, a mass where the movie stars would be. So, it was, and we sat in the seats that had been designated for the diplomatic corps, precisely a couple of benches behind those assigned to the actresses. It must have been one of the most crowded religious celebrations in the history of the Nicaraguan capital.

We did not see Salma Hayek, but the one who arrived was Ashley Judd, very nice, who offered us a kind smile and a gesture with her hand. She was wearing a strapless dress, with a moderate neckline and her hair tied in two ponytails that showed her neck and part of her back in a very youthful touch. As if I were a moviegoer, I must say that my position was enviable, since I was right behind her and in the front row, there was a short, chubby lady, wife of some local dignitary, who did not obstruct the view.

I hope that my priest friends will take this note as an untimely confession and not excommunicate me, but the truth is, I could not concentrate on the Holy Eucharist, although I must say that half the congregation was like that. Nobody missed the gestures of the cordial actress, in my case, I even thought that at the time of the exchange of the greeting of peace, I could try to shake her hand, but there was the problem of the front bench and its occupants. When the time came, I settled for greeting Andrés and the lady in front, who had shaken Judd’s hand, so, indirectly and through the lady in question, I must have shared something of Ashley’s presence.

Ashley Judd has not had an easy life, a victim of abuse in the past, she was one of the brave ones who accused producer Harvey Weinstein at the time and has been constant in her humanitarian activism, defending various causes. Fans of IndyCar racing surely recognize Judd, because she was married to Dario Franchitti, a legendary driver in that category, colleague of the Colombian pilot Juan Pablo Montoya, so I suppose that the Montoya family must have shared on and off the track with Ashley Judd. Franchitti is British with Italian roots, which he shares with Judd, whose father was Italian, in fact her given name is Ashley Tyler Ciminella.

Judd comes from a very artistic family, because her mother (Naomi) and her older sister (Wynonna), were country singers, and although she has talent for singing, she has only starred in one musical, the biography of the composer Cole Porter, in which she performs some songs (De-lovely, 2004). She has also been a woman with academic interests, a graduate of the University of Kentucky (French) and Harvard (public policy).

Having finished this confession, for which I hope to be forgiven, I must say in my defense that that vision of Ashley Judd was simply heavenly, perhaps because she has proven to be a true angel.

Dixon Acosta Medellín

Colombian writer known in the diplomat world as Dixon Moya. 

On what used to be called Twitter, during recess you can find him as @dixonmedellin