Tara

The heroine of "United States of Tara" is not your average wife and mother. Living with dissociative identity disorder (DID), Tara has four alternate identities that pop up in times of great stress, which invariably mess with her life and the lives of her family members. Fortunately for all involved, she's played by Toni Collette, who's not average at anything. (The show's executive producers, Steven Spielberg and Diablo Cody, are no slouches either.) When the Showtime series began last January, Tara had gone off her medication in the hopes of learning the source of the disorder.

FT. HOOD, Texas - Capital murder trials are rare in the military's criminal justice system, but they are familiar territory for the judge who will handle the trial of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 in a shooting rampage at this base in central Texas. The judge is Col. Tara Abbey Osborn, and she once served at Ft. Hood, the sprawling facility known as "the Great Place. " Osborn has presided over "numerous serious felony trials, one capital trial and other non-capital homicide trials," a base spokesman said.

In his letter regarding my book, "On the Road to Tara: The Making of Gone With the Wind" (Calendar Letters, Jan. 4), Tom Stempel seems to be accusing me of slighting the work of several previous writers on the subject. If Stempel had even glanced at my book, he would have seen that my bibliography lists Rudy Behlmer's wonderful "Memo From David O. Selznick" and other books he mentions, in addition to a few dozen books he doesn't catalog, including "Showman," David Thomson's authoritative biography of David O. Selznick.

Tara Kolla was born in Inglewood but grew up in Europe. She came back to Los Angeles, to a half-acre Silver Lake plot, where she decided to try her hand at "urban farming. " Her neighbors objected, so now she mostly works other people's land, and works to further the cause. We met in Hidden Canyon, the aptly named acres in Glassell Park whose owners invited Kolla to cultivate and grow market flowers. Here are rows and beds of hyssop, black-eyed Susans, honeywort, zinnias, mums and ornamental cotton flowers.

Re. "The Case of the Missing Mansion" (Feb. 27): Tara, schmara. Where's the "Brady Bunch" house? MICHAEL HITCHCOCK Sherman Oaks

Sonia Collazo's criticisms of lesbian relationships on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (Calendar Letters, May 18) indicate a narrowly focused understanding of the series. Collazo is right to underscore the show's efforts to portray a loving, normal relationship between series regular Willow and her girlfriend, Tara. But Collazo does her cause a disservice in reacting in knee-jerk fashion to the killing of Tara last season "after sex." The poignancy of the sex scene only underscored the meaninglessness and randomness of Tara's death a few moments later.

Renewals: ABC Family has ordered 24 more episodes of its freshman series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," to begin airing this summer. And Showtime has ordered 12 additional episodes of its new series, "United States of Tara," to air next year.

I find the apparent lack of concern for the well-being of the animals at the Los Angeles Zoo utterly appalling. Put Thomas in the elephant compound for a week and I bet he would clean up the zoo. TARA A. KLORA Los Angeles

Oscar-winning "Juno" screenwriter Diablo Cody will tackle the subject of motherhood once again in a television comedy for Showtime. The cable network has picked up 12 episodes of "United States of Tara," written by Cody and starring Toni Collette ("Little Miss Sunshine") as a wife and mother of two who suffers from dissociative identity (formerly multiple personality) disorder. Steven Spielberg, who first came up with the story, will executive produce with Cody.

P.J. Castellaneta's "Relax . . . It's Just Sex," which opened Outfest '98, is such a deft, well-shaped piece of work, sparkling with witty dialogue and expert acting from a large cast, that it takes a second look to appreciate fully the range and seriousness of its subtext. Castellaneta's art is the kind that disguises itself to the extent that amid the repartee you risk being distracted from what a substantial and provocative accomplishment the film really is.

As a professional event planner, Allegra Allison has done studio openings, elaborate backyard parties and plush dinner soirees. But it took her eight years to pull off her biggest challenge: the preservation of a last-of-its-kind West Hollywood estate nicknamed "Tara" because of its resemblance to the mansion in "Gone With the Wind. " City Council members this week voted to scrap plans to turn the two-story, Colonial-style home and its wooded grounds into a federally funded, 28-unit apartment complex for low-income senior citizens.

Dennis Rodman earned plenty of labels during his sometimes turbulent NBA career. Here's one the player who created chaos on — and sometimes off — the court never expected: Hall of Fame member. Rodman headlined the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2011 class announced on Monday at the Final Four in Houston, a group that includes former Dream Team member Chris Mullin and Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer . "It's just unreal," Rodman said. And somewhat unexpected, at least to the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and five-time NBA champion, who believed his extracurricular activities would overshadow his on-the-court accomplishments.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has launched an inquiry into a contract created last year between the city of Vernon and an energy firm owned by the wife of the then-city administrator, marking the second outside investigation into potential wrongdoing in the industrial city. The probe comes after The Times reported last month that through the first half of this year Donal O'Callaghan received $243,898 in consulting payments through Tara Energy Inc., a company headed by his wife Kimberly McBride.

TARA'S HIMALAYAN CUISINE LOCATION: 19737 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills; (818) 932-9572. PRICE: Appetizers, $3 to $7; entrees, $7 to $11; breads, $2 to $4. DETAILS: Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Mondays. Tea, yogurt drinks and soda. Credit cards accepted. Lot parking.

On a good night at the new Woodland Hills branch of Tara's Himalayan Cuisine, it can feel like the entire world loves you. Tara Gurung Black, there most nights, is the kind of owner who hugs her regulars, who chats with guests new and old, who will tell you without hesitation which menu items she loves. "Get the yak chili," Black says. "Oh god, I love the yak chili so much. " Tara's Himalayan serves up food from Nepal, Tibet and India, three of the countries through which the Himalayan Mountains run. Yak chili is a traditional dish from Black's Nepali homeland, and it's an encapsulation of everything that's good about her restaurant.

Welcome to the humanist era of VH1. "I don't know anyone who goes in a relationship saying, 'I don't need openness, I don't need honesty,'" Chad Ochocinco said in the premiere episode of his new dating show, "Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch." As celebrity daters go, Ochocinco is on the holistic end. A star wide receiver with the Cincinnati Bengals, and also a well-liked participant in the most recent season of "Dancing With the Stars," he's sufficiently famous. Yet on the first few episodes of this show, he often appears slightly dorky, as if he were still excited that he could have this many attractive women at his beck and call.

Tara: Have you noticed that the quality of films being produced lately is less than adequate to review? Movies such as "Bad Girls," "Cops and Robbersons" and "Serial Mom" clutter the box office with mediocrity. Thank goodness "With Honors" has hit theaters, and it's good! Dana: Good? Food is good. People look good. Little children are good. But "With Honors" is fantastic!

Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Obama's Affordable Care Act. The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide healthcare to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead. The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they'll also miss out on health insurance at work. LIVE CHAT: Join us at 3 p.m. Pacific with your questions and comments Consider the city of Long Beach.

While the thought of paternally polished Cliff Huxtable giving flawed advice or Alex Keaton's dad, Steven, losing his smooth post-hippie cool was inconceivable to TV audiences in the 1980s, today's parents in prime time unapologetically embody all of the imperfections and missteps that make up actual family life. Such shows as "Parenthood" and "Modern Family" derive humor and drama from their characters' unattainable quest for perfection, a goal with which any parent can strongly identify.

The heroine of "United States of Tara" is not your average wife and mother. Living with dissociative identity disorder (DID), Tara has four alternate identities that pop up in times of great stress, which invariably mess with her life and the lives of her family members. Fortunately for all involved, she's played by Toni Collette, who's not average at anything. (The show's executive producers, Steven Spielberg and Diablo Cody, are no slouches either.) When the Showtime series began last January, Tara had gone off her medication in the hopes of learning the source of the disorder.