Ashley Judd Graduates from U of Kentucky

The University of Texas has Matthew McConaughey (BA in Film Directing, 1993) as it’s most famous actor-who-actually-graduated.

And now U of Kentucky has their equivalent:

What’s Ashely cheering about?

The most famous Wildcat fan in the world has finally graduated from the University of Kentucky — 21 years after she started her degree. (Note — Ashley and I both started college in 1986. I didn’t complete my undergraduate degree until 1998 — so I understand “taking off a few semesters”)

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Ashley Judd is now a graduate of the University of Kentucky.

The 39-year-old actress received a bachelor’s degree in French, but it wasn’t clear whether she attended any of Sunday’s graduation ceremonies, UK spokesman Jay Blanton told the Lexington Herald-Leader for a story on its Web site.

Judd attended the university from 1986 to 1990, but left one course shy of graduation.

Blanton said student confidentiality laws prevented him from saying how she finally received her degree.

In an interview last year, Judd told the newspaper that she would probably take a correspondence course to finish the one class necessary to get a degree. When she left in 1990, online and correspondence courses weren’t allowed to count toward graduation.

I’m sure Ashley’s mother (Naomi Judd) must be happy knowing that her daughter now has a backup plan “just in case that whole acting thing doesn’t work out.”

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McConaughey and Judd are two of the most famous “college sports fans” — Ashley is as constant a sight at UK basketball games as McConaughey is on the sidelines of Longhorn football games.

Here’s a few other famous alumni — who actually earned a degree — though they’re not as famous for wearing their school’s colors and going to the games:

• USC has Will Ferrell (BA in Sports Information, 1989)
• Texas A&M University-Kingsville has Eva Longoria (BS in Kinesiology, 1998).
• Harvard has Tommy Lee Jones (BA in English, 1969) and Natalie Portman (BA in Psychology, 2003)
• Fordham has Denzel Washington (BA in Drama and Journalism, 1977)