Jill Carroll is a journalism fellow at Harvard this semester after her 82 day-ordeal as a hostage in Iraq while on assignment with the Christian Science Monitor. But if she thought she'd get a break from the Boston press for not wanting to do interviews — or, for that matter, talk about her ordeal while eating lunch — think again:

Being held hostage in Iraq can catapult a gal from a pedestrian UMass pedigree to the hallowed halls of Harvard. But it also apparently makes one rather full of oneself!

So there was Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor freelancer who spent 82 days as a hostage in Baghdad, popping into Shays in Harvard Square.

Jill, a University of Massachusetts Amherst grad who is a fellow this semester at Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, was recognized by a FOX25 assignment editor who was hanging in the pub with pals.

The intrepid editor went over to Jill, introduced himself and attempted to chat her up. "She had come in with her salon of friends, and they were all talking their Harvard talk," said Someone Who Was There. "But it's a very open place, where everyone's standing close together or sitting with each other, so people just feel free to talk to everyone."

Carroll seemed OK with the chit-chat until the editor inquired what she was up to post-hostage crisis.

"I'm a fellow," she huffed.

OK, our hero replied, then he asked whether she would be interested in doing an interview with Channel 25 to catch viewers up on her current situation. Which didn't exactly sit too well with the former reporter.

"No," said Jill rather snootily, "I'm not doing any press."
Hence, we assume, Jill's failure to RSVP to our e-mail query about the matter.

"Talking their Harvard talk"? "Huffed"? "Rather snootily"? Even if all of that were the case — which we sorta doubt — she WAS HELD HOSTAGE IN IRAQ FOR 82 DAYS.