FRANKFORT, Ky. – Actress Ashley Judd isn’t ruling out a run for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.

The former Kentuckian said in a statement Friday that she’s honored to be mentioned as a potential candidate, but she sidestepped the question of whether she would get into the race.

Judd lives in Tennessee and would have to re-establish a residence in Kentucky before she could challenge Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in his 2014 re-election bid.

No Democrats have stepped forward to challenge McConnell, who already has $6.8 million in the bank for his re-election. In 2008, he won re-election to a fifth term.

Branagh gets knighthood in real life

LONDON – Kenneth Branagh, who has played royalty on stage and screen, has been made a real-life knight by Queen Elizabeth II.

The British actor said he was pleased to be honored in the year of the queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. He said that “it’s been a hell of a year for the U.K. and I feel very honored to be a tiny part of it.”

Belfast-born Branagh was knighted at a Buckingham Palace ceremony Friday for services to drama and for his charity work in Northern Ireland.

Best known as a Shakespearean actor and as TV detective “Wallander,” Branagh joins the pantheon of theatrical knights alongside the late Sir Laurence Olivier – whom Branagh played in “My Week With Marilyn.”

He has also directed films including “Henry V.”