Tamara, her mother & husband Greg

It's been more than 30 years since "One Life to Live's" Ed and Carla Hall reigned supreme among a handful of black characters on daytime television. Today, the soap opera landscape is slightly better.

Two black actors with Pittsburgh ties are heating up the small screen opposite each other in one of the raciest daytime acquaintance-rape story lines since Luke raped Laura on "General Hospital."

Homestead native and Carnegie Mellon University graduate Tamara Tunie plays the smart, sultry, former district attorney Jessica Griffin on CBS's "As the World Turns."

Pittsburgh-born and Duquesne University-educated...

Christine Squitieri and the graphic artists at North Shore Animal League of America did a great job with the shoot we did with Law & Order SVU's Tamara Tunie! I mention the details of the shoot further down on this blog. It was a heck of a day, last February, with a not-so-nice snowstorm to hold us up, but not stop us.


Tamara posed with several dogs from the NSALA kennel that day, joining the ranks of other celebrities that participated to help remind pet owners that spaying or neutering their dogs and cats can significantly reduce the number of animals that end up in shelters across the...