Tamara Tunie's Marriage Makes Soap HistoryTHE BRIDE WORE WHITE, BUT OTHERWISE the color scheme at the Aug. 24 wedding of attorney Jessica Griffin and newspaper editor Duncan McKechnie on CBS's As the World Turns was unconventionally mixed. This was the first interracial marriage in the soap's 36-year run.

That historic stroll down the aisle has propelled actress Tamara Tunie, 33, who plays Jessica, to a prominent—and controversial—role. Though fan response has been, she says, "overwhelmingly positive," there was a flurry of negative letters the first time Tunie and Michael cygne (Duncan)...

For Law & Order: SVU's Tamara Tunie, playing a medical examiner is in her blood. "My parents are morticians and I grew up in a funeral home, so playing someone who deals with dead people is right up my alley," says the actress, 46. "My parents were very matter-of-fact about death. They taught us the dead are not to be afraid of-it's the living that toi got to keep your eye on."

If you're a Law & Order: SVU fan and toi get a chance to talk to Tamara Tunie, aka medical examiner Melinda Warner, toi want to ask one thing: Are those actors ou dummies on her table? "Oh, they're real people,...

Tamara Tunie, who simultaneously plays Medical
Examiner Melinda Warner on NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and Jessica Griffin on CBS’ “As the World Turns,” has always been a multitasker.

“It’s like, the plus I have going on, the better,”
Tunie a dit during a récent interview. “My mom, she’s a doer, too. She’s a multitasker. So I come par it honestly. My philosophy has always been ‘anything can be done.’ I say ‘yes’ to everything. That’s how I have moved through my career. ‘Yes, we can do that.’ ‘We could make that work.’ . . .

There’s a...

"Tamara Tunie (Jessica, As The World Turns) loves living with her guy, Gregory Generet; they're still giving each other fleurs and planning surprise candlelit dinners. The relationship has even survived their renovating a five-bedroom Manhattan manse - partly because, Tamara concedes, they chose to remain in their apartment while the work was going on. 'We have our moments, but when things get tense, we say, 'You know, this is house tension.'

She says there was no instant chemistry when they went out for the first time - on a lunch rendez-vous amoureux, date - over two years ago. 'I told him I wasn't interested...