Press Release: Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) By Mindy Kaling
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Emmy nominated-writer, actress, and producer shares her hilarious thoughts on her chubster childhood to the pros and cons of playing Kelly Kapoor on The Office, revealing her most inspiring pearls of wisdom—on shopping, sex, failure, and friendship—with tips for achieving the exact level of fame you want.
IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME?
(And Other Concerns)
By Mindy Kaling
In a hilarious collection of personal stories, coping strategies, and gutsy, reassuring observations about life among the laughable, Mindy Kaling shows us why she’s one of America’s fastest-rising stars in her debut book, IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME? (And Other Concerns) (Crown Archetype; On Sale November 1, 2011; $25.00). Delivering sheer entertainment on every page, Mindy probes timely issues as well as her own psyche. Topics include:
• Being a sensitive kid: With Massachusetts as her playground, this private-school educated child of high-achieving immigrants (architect father, physician mother) ate well and gives us a glossary of fat-kid synonyms to prove it. She takes us deep into her 1980s childhood (including her hatred of bike riding and Frisbee) and her decidedly un-90210 teenage years of Latin club, TV deprivation, and membership in a four-girl posse that regularly commandeered the Cheesecake Factory. (“If Luke Perry had gone to my high school, everyone would have thought, ‘What’s the deal with this brooding greaser guy?’”)
• Being a sensitive entry-level employee in New York: Mindy confesses that she was a lousy intern for Conan, which cut her chances of writing for his show after she graduated from Dartmouth. Jobless, she and two friends rented a tiny, walk-up Brooklyn apartment “the staircase in our third-floor walk-up was the steepest, hardest, metal-est staircase I have ever encountered in my life. It was a staircase for killing someone and making it seem like an accident.” There were babysitting jobs and dance numbers for casting calls, and then (cue Madonna’s “Holiday”) she landed a job working for a TV psychic. Along the way, she discovered the meaning of true friendship (code of conduct includes “I Will Try to Like Your Boyfriend Five Times,” “I Will Keep Your Favorite Feminine Hygiene Products at My House,” and “No Two People Are Better Than Us”), and she teaches us what to do when you give your best friend a bloody nose onstage while performing an acclaimed off-Broadway play (Matt & Ben) that you co-wrote with her.
• Achieving the exact level of Hollywood fame she wants: And then she’s a star: Matt & Ben takes her to the west coast, where lands a job as a staff writer for a remake of a British sitcom about office workers. But she’s not a superstar, and she likes it that way. Mindy riffs on having just enough stardom so that batshit stuff she wears is immediately considered fashionable, she never has to wait in line for brunch, and she can never go to jail. How does she keep it real? By keeping track of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real (including The Woman Who Is Obsessed with Her Career and Is No Fun at All).
• Dating, or not: Mindy reveals that until she turned 30, she had only been dating boys, and now she’s ready for a man: “Men own alarm clocks. Men tip generously. Men sleep on a mattress that isn’t on the floor. Men buy new shampoo instead of adding water to a nearly empty bottle of shampoo. Men go in for a kiss without giving you some long preamble about how they’re thinking of kissing you.” She also defends chest hair; questions the appeal of hook-ups; and tells married people to step it up since divorced people clearly have the upper hand.
• Life as an Office worker: Taking us way, way behind the scenes, Mindy dishes on The Office: the writers’ fights, how she broke through the Harvard Lampoon ceiling, the show’s isolated set on a dead-end street in the San Fernando Valley (not Scranton), the crotchless girdle she once received in a promotional gift bag, and her favorite way to write (“When I write, I like to look like I’m recovering from tuberculosis. I sit in bed, my laptop resting on a blanket.”). Readers will also discover things Kelly Kapoor would do that Mindy would never do (including writing Jennifer Aniston a letter of support, and text while showering).
• Plus: Bonus segments include photos of herself that Mindy keeps in her BlackBerry, non-traumatic things that have made Mindy cry (including valet guys who are her dad’s age), Mindy’s favorite moments in comedy, revenge fantasies Mindy savors while jogging, and much more.
In the spirit of bestsellers by Chelsea Handler (but less boozy) and Tina Fey (but less bossy), IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME? will have Mindy’s millions of fans cheering her on and laughing for hours.
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MINDY KALING is an Emmy-nominated writer, actress, and producer on NBC’s The Office. She co-wrote and co-starred in the hit off-Broadway play Matt and Ben (playing the role of Ben Affleck), and she has been a guest writer on Saturday Night Live. You can find her on Twitter (@mindykaling), where she has over 1.5 million followers, or at her desk pretending to be writing a screenplay but actually online shopping with a memorized credit card number. She resides in Los Angeles. Her billing zip code is 90067.
IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME?
(And Other Concerns)
By Mindy Kaling
Crown Archetype • On Sale November 1, 2011
Hardcover • $25.00 • ISBN 978-0-307-88626-2
Black and white author snapshots throughout.
To schedule an interview with Mindy Kaling, please contact Tammy Blake in the Crown Archetype Publicity Department at 212-572-2542 or tblake@randomhouse.com