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Oops! Mindy Kaling mistaken for Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai

Oct 26, 2014

Comedian Mindy Kaling, creator and star of FOX's "The Mindy Project," recently was mistaken for another famous face: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

According to the New York Times, a "tipsy" elderly man approached Kaling, 35, earlier this month at an after-party for The New Yorker Festival, where Kaling had led a sold-out panel discussion.

"Congratulations on your Nobel Prize," the 80-something man told Kaling at the Top of the Standard club, aka the "Boom Boom Room." He continued to "shower her with compliments" that were clearly meant for Yousafzai and wondered out loud how she had recovered so well from her gunshot wounds, according to the anecdote in the Times.

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Yousafzai, 17, a Pakistani activist for girls' right to education, became the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize on Oct. 10. She made headlines in 2012 after she was shot by a Taliban gunman.

Kaling took the case of mistaken identity in stride.
“Did he really think I’m Malala? And that if I were, I’d be at the Boom Boom Room?” she said.
“That’s the best thing that’s happened all night.”

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