Act of Faith : NAOMI JUDD REVEALS WHY SHE DECIDED TO COOPERATE WITH A TV BIOPIC

A definite “people” person, Naomi Judd is a favorite with the cast and crew of “Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge,” NBC’s four-hour adaptation of the best-selling 1993 autobiography she wrote with Bud Schaetzle.

The week before, they decorated her trailer and threw a party for her 49th birthday. Gazing out the trailer’s window through her tinted glasses, Judd points out one of the crew. “That’s Bob,” she says, adding that she knows everyone’s name and personal story. Judd frequently waves to them as they pass by her trailer window. Her assistant knocks on the door to remind her that the director’s parents are on the set to meet her.

On this bleak, overcast Friday afternoon, Judd is sitting in her small trailer situated in the parking lot of the old Ambassador Hotel. Inside the Los Angeles landmark, director Bobby Roth is shooting a sequence in which the teen-age Naomi Judd attends a lavish high school ball.

Judd, who is co-executive producer of the movie airing Sunday and Monday, is keeping a vigilant eye on the production, heeding the advice of good friend Loretta Lynn, whose own life story was turned into the 1980 film “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

“She said, ‘Bird dog them, honey. Don’t let them out of your sight.’ ”

Ironically, Judd never had any intention of writing “Love Can Build a Bridge” or having her and her daughter Wynonna’s incredible rags-to-riches story transformed into a TV movie.

For eight years, Naomi and Wynonna were the country-music superstar act known as the Judds. The Grammy Award winners sold more than 15 million albums worldwide and were the No. 1 touring country act by 1991. Youngest daughter Ashley was beginning to make a name for herself as an actress (“Ruby in Paradise”). Then, their dream lives were shattered in 1990, when Naomi, a former nurse, was diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening liver disease, chronic active hepatitis. In 1991, the duo embarked on an incredibly successful and emotional farewell tour.

Judd knew there was something wrong with her even before the doctor told her. “I never had a cold,” says Judd, who is now in remission. “I had worked ICU in the hospital and I was exposed to every germ that had ever been. I was on top of the world. I crawled over broken glass to get here and I just wouldn’t acknowledge (the illness). I was in a wheelchair and I couldn’t finish my sentences. I felt like my body was poisoning me. I acknowledged the diagnosis, but I did not accept the prognosis.”

She knew modern medical science couldn’t cure her. “There is no medication,” she says. “They put me on interferon, which sort of jump-starts your body’s immune system. Then I began what I call my voyage of self-discovery on a journey to wellness.”

That journey led her to read about and seek out various forms of alternative medicine.

She also made a pact with God. “I know that I am the child of the most high God and I know there’s a divine intelligence who runs this whole show,” she says. “I tried to cut out fat and I cut out meat.” And she took long walks on her farm, named Peaceful Valley, outside of Nashville in Franklin, Tenn.

During her farewell tour, the ill would line up at her bus at every spot. After the tour, she spent 2 1/2 years at her farm writing “Love Can Build a Bridge,” which chronicled her failed early marriage, her struggle to support Ashley and Wynonna with a variety of odd jobs and how, after moving to Nashville in 1983, they landed a recording contract with RCA.

Her ex-manager, she says, signed contracts with Random House for her autobiography and with producer Jordan Kerner (“Fried Green Tomatoes”) for a TV movie without telling her.

Resigned to that, Judd says she “sat alone at home and wrote the book in longhand by myself. Then it came time for the miniseries. I went to a lawyer and said, ‘Never in a million years would I have done this.’ ”

Judd knew she had two options when it came to the NBC movie. “Wynonna, Ashley and I could do a little press release saying, ‘We have nothing to do with this.’ Or I could be the guardian angel for it. I felt like we were in good hands with a man of Jordan Kerner’s character. Bobby Roth is one of Jordan’s childhood friends. Bobby and I are now best friends.”

Though she has the title of co-executive producer, Judd isn’t involved in the money or casting decisions. “The truth is no one would ever allow me to have anything to do with money,” she says, laughing. “First of all, with the director, I would give him the moon.”

It’s been a strange experience for Judd watching Kathleen York play her and Viveka Davis portray Wynonna. “Beyond bizarre,” she says. “I was just looking at my call sheet and most people on a Friday night go to the movies. Larry (husband Larry Strickland) and I are going to go in there and watch ourselves meet. Last night, we sat here and watched dailies and it was the scene where I threw Larry out. We didn’t see each other for a year-and-a-half. We were sitting and we were both crying.

Both York and Davis are lip-syncing to the Judds’ songs.

“Wynonna and I said, ‘We are sorry. This isn’t even up for discussion. Music is the most important thing. Judd still misses performing on stage, but the self-described “communicator” still gets to meet people through her speaking engagements and book tours.

“I still do book signings because you pull into a bookstore and you sit there and you get to talk to people. You can’t beat it.”

“Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge” airs Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. on NBC.