Knock Out Punch

People often ask Mel Harris, the willowy star of ABC's Thirty Something and wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly, if she has zillions of family pictures at hand because she has a photographer in the house. Her answer--"a medium amount"--is less interesting than the fact that she often accompanies her husband on assignments. "We've gone out with the P.L.O. on raids," says Harris, 31. "We've gone down the Jordan River with King Hussein and gone scuba diving in the Gulf of 'Aqaba--not your usual travel things.' If Harris looks familiar, it's because she spent nine years as a model and appeared in commercials ("I was the last Tab girl") before breaking into acting. Thirty Something, TV's answer to The Big Chill, is the highly touted show about the highs and lows of being a baby boomer. Harris portrays a frazzled mother of a small child, a role she plays in real life as well. "I asked David to read the script," she says, "and after he read it, he asked, 'How long have they been living with us without telling me?'"