Actress Tamara Tunie, best known for playing a no-nonsense medical examiner "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," rarely smiles in that grim role.

But there she was Monday, beaming in the bright sunshine and gracing The Daily News float at the Columbus ngày Parade.

"It's so exciting to be here," đã đưa ý kiến Tunie as excited những người hâm mộ snapped her photo.

Never mind that Tunie's as Italian as corned beef and cabbage.

"I'm Irish on St. Patrick's Day, I'm Italian on Columbus Day, I'm a New Yorker every day," Tunie đã đưa ý kiến as she waited for the parade to begin.

Tunie, 51, had already made her mark on Broadway and as attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" when she was tapped to play Dr. Melinda Warner on SVU.

Playing a coroner was not that big a stretch for Tunie - she's an undertaker's daughter and grew up above a funeral trang chủ in Pennsylvania.

Now Harlem is trang chủ and Tunie đã đưa ý kiến having a part on a New York-based hiển thị is bliss, especially when she gets to shoot scenes in her neighborhood.

"I can walk my French bulldog, Spraga, between takes," she said.

Money Honey Maria Bartiromo was the Grand Marshal of the annual display of Italian pride. And there was no mistaking her heritage.

"I grew up in an Italian family," đã đưa ý kiến Bartiromo, who anchors CNBC's "Closing Bell" and is host and managing editor of "The tường đường phố, street Journal báo cáo with Maria Bartiromo."

"It's an opportunity to appreciate our rich heritage and upbringing," she said. "These are my Những người bạn and family here."