Mindy Kaling and Malala Yousafzai are both accomplished women. They don't look alike, though. Also, since they're not in the same field, the chances of both Mindy and Malala ending up at an entertainment business-focused party are fairly slim. However, some people still find this confusing.
In this week's "Night Out" column in The New York Times, writer Jacob Bernstein follows Kaling during her recent appearance at The New Yorker Festival. I was at Kaling's talk with New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum, and I can confirm that she continued to look nothing like recent Nobel Peace Prize winner and global advocate for female education Yousafzai. But, you're probably wondering why I keep mentioning this fact, so here goes.
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After Kaling's panel ended around 11:30 p.m., she jumped in a waiting SUV to head to the Festival's V.I.P. after-party at the Boom Boom Room. That's when it happened.
"As she stood by the banquettes, a tipsy man in his 80s cornered her and showered her with compliments, apparently mistaking her for Malala Yousafzai," Bernstein writes in The Times. "'Congratulations on your Nobel Prize,' he said, before expressing wonder at how well she had recovered from Taliban gunshots."
The encounter rendered the usually chatty Kaling speechless. "Did he really think I’m Malala?" she asks Bernstein. "And that if I were, I’d be at the Boom Boom Room?"
Kaling managed to be good-natured about the mix-up, though, remarking that it was probably the best thing that had happened all night. Still, here's a friendly reminder to anyone drunk or sober: Mindy Kaling and Malala Yousafzai are two entirely different — yet totally awesome — people. (The New York Times)