ledes

Anna Webster

Put Sarah Jessica Parker and Sandra Bullock in a room. Who would be easier to interview? Who would give the better story? Boston University Professor Phyllis Karas knows the answer. She’s written her way from The Marblehead Messenger, her small hometown paper, to People Magazine with a boss that could rival Miranda Priestly from Devil Wears Prada.

“Sandra Bullock was so open and free,” she says to her class of aspiring magazine journalists. “Sarah Jessica Parker was much more tight-lipped.”

Karas has been seeing stars since 1990 and knows from experience that one small typo can bring down an entire story. She knows what it is like to write a book through the eyes of a mass murder.

Alternative lede:

Standing at a height of 5' 7" wearing pink flats on her feet and barrettes in her hair, Phyllis Karas has written a first person account of life in Boston as a mobster. Something about her delicate appearance made me doubt those french manicured fingers had ever touched a dead body. Karas is a journalist who has helped write countless books and articles and now shares her stories as a professor at Boston University.