Mindy Kaling, a writer and actor best known for her role in "The Office," was recently congratulated after The New Yorker Festival on being awarded the Nobel Prize. The only problem: Kaling has never recieved the award.
The man was referring to Malala Yousafzai, a 17-year-old Pakistani girl who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for human rights advocacy earlier this month. Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 after speaking out about women's rights to equal eduation, and she survived. She is the youngest recipient of the award in history.
The New York Times reports that Kaling, who is of Indian heritage, was at the Boom Boom Room for a V.I.P. after-party when the exchange went down. A visibly intoxicated man in his eighties approched and expressed congratulations on her award and wonder at her recovery from the gunshots.
"Did he really think I'm Malala?" Kaling, 35, said afterward. "And that if I were, I'd be at the Boom Boom Room?"
Despite the shock of the encounter, Kaling said that it was "the best thing that's happened all night."