Ashley Judd has written a somber new memoir based on her childhood and famous family called “All That Is Bitter & Sweet.”

Radar Online, which obtained a copy in advance of its Tuesday release date, reveals excerpts in which Judd counters the notion, made famous by her mother, Naomi, that the Judd family put the fun in dysfunctional.

After her father moved out, Ashley says, her mother began another relationship, with a man who was an abusive heroin addict.

“I was taught to believe that our lifestyle was normal and never to question it or complain, even when I was left alone for hours, sometimes days at a time, or when I was passed without warning to yet another relative,” Judd writes.

The problems for the actress didn’t just occur outside the house, as she details a sexual assault she suffered while getting pizza.

“An old man everyone knew beckoned me into a dark, empty corner of the business and offered me a quarter for the pinball machine at the pizza place if I’d sit on his lap,” Judd writes. “He opened his arms, I climbed up, and I was shocked when he suddenly cinched his arms around me, squeezing me and smothering my mouth with his, jabbing his tongue deep into my mouth.”

Her first chapter begins:

“My family of origin, the one into which I was born, was also brimming with love but was not a healthy family system,” Judd writes in that first chapter. “There was too much trauma, abandonment, addiction and shame. My mother, while she was transforming herself into the country legend Naomi Judd, created an origin myth for the Judds that did not match my reality. She and my sister have been quoted as saying that our family put the “fun” in dysfunction. I wondered: Who, exactly, was having all the fun? What was I missing?”

According to ET, Mom Naomi Judd and sister Wynona are standing behind Ashley. In the book, Ashley details her battle with depression as a result of growing up with molestation, loneliness and neglect. “I think it’s key for us to spend time figuring our own reality,” says Naomi. “Every unhappiness is tied to a story, and we have to go back and figure out our stories. And then it’s our stories that connect us.”

Wynonna adds, “The veil has been lifted. Secrets keep you sick and families will heal once you get real.” When asked if she is proud of her sister, Wynonna says, “Yes.”

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Amazon link

Variety confirms that Ashley Judd is returning to TV in a new ABC version of ‘Taken’!

Ashley Judd is close to signing a deal that would cast her as the lead in ABC’s “Missing.”

Drama, from writer Greg Poirier and ABC Studios, has a 10-episode order and will start shooting this summer in Europe as it preps for a fall or midseason launch.

“Missing” centers on a suburban mother who, after her son disappears in Italy while studying abroad, rushes to Europe to track him down. It soon becomes clear she is no ordinary soccer mom, but a former CIA agent who will stop at nothing to bring her son home alive.

This is Judd’s first series since she co-starred in NBC’s “Sisters” from 1991-94. Her next bigscreen role will be in Warner Bros.’ “Dolphin Tale,” due in September.

I loved the movie, which starred Liam Neeson. I like the idea of turning it into a TV show – very Alias-ish!

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Ashley Judd has taken some time off lately to focus on getting a diploma in public administration from Harvard University.  Since graduating last week, Ashley’s ready to jump back into acting. (I’m going to pretend like her latest movie Tooth Fairy never actually happened. It was painfully bad!)

Liv Tyler was set to star opposite Patrick Dempsey in a bank-heist-comedy-caper called “Flypaper”. Liv had to drop out, so Ashley swooped in and snatched up the role!

The film, written by “The Hangover” scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, will tell the story of a man caught up in two simultaneous bank robberies who tries to save a teller he is secretly in love with, according to Variety.com.

The project is due to begin filming in Louisiana later this month.

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Flynet

According to Ashley Judd, the biggest threat to wolves in Alaska is the elephant. In particular, the one running the state.

The actress and activist has teamed up with the animal rights group Defenders of Wildilfe for a campaign aimed at stopping Alaska’s aerial hunting practices, in which well-armed “sportsmen” shoot at bears and wolves from airplanes. Judd and pals have targeted one of practice’s chief proponents, Gov. Sarah Palin.

“Palin is again casting aside science and championing the slaughter of wildlife,” Judd said in a video for the cause. “It is time to stop Sarah Palin and stop this senseless savagery.”

The group is seeking donations to help end the predator control program by proposing new federal legislation.

The governor, who was targeted by the group last fall in the run-up to the presidential election, declared the Defenders of Wildlife an “extreme fringe group” that is “twisting the truth.” She further called out their “reprehensible and hypocritical” use of her state and herself to boost fundraising.

Palin maintains that the predatory animals are decimating the moose and caribou populations in the state, which Alaskans depend on for “food and cultural practices.”

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Ashley is at Sundance to promote her new film, Helen, which explores depression and leads her character to push away her husband and unable to care for her 13-year-old daughter.

Sounds like a cheery movie!

Splash

Ashley Judd was primed for depression as a child – because she was left on her own while her mother, singer Naomi, toured the world.

The Double Jeopardy star went public with her battle against depression after she entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas in February, 2006, and now she admits she has always battled the blues.

The actress says, “I had a very unsafe and unstable childhood about 10 months out of the year. I didn’t have my normal, natural little-girl needs met. I was left on my own a great deal.

“There was a time when I skipped a whole week of school because my mom was on the road, I didn’t have a ride and I’d gotten ashamed of calling friends.

“I had my first childhood depression at eight – severe, intense, hole-in-the-soul loneliness. No one noticed.”

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WENN