Category: Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling and Kate Hudson have both been everywhere in the past two weeks, hustling for their Netflix show, Running Point. Running Point is already a hit on Netflix too, just like With Love, Meghan. Both shows are in the top-ten. Mindy is the executive producer and showrunner on Running Point, which is loosely based on Jeanie Buss, president of the LA Lakers organization. Kate Hudson stars as the “Jeanie Buss-esque” character.

Well, Mindy has been all over the gossip pages this week… but not because of Running Point. It’s because of her one-episode appearance on With Love, Meghan. In that episode – which was filmed spring – Mindy refers to Meg as “Meghan Markle” and Meghan corrected her, saying in part “I’m Sussex now.” As I’ve said this week, the REACTION to that one moment has been fascinating. I had a big “aha moment” as I watched the British royalists react to it and it ended up being a confirmation (to me) about what was behind all of those “bullying accusations.” Meghan would correct someone or state a preference plainly, and those Salt Islanders would lose their damn minds and create convoluted melodramas about how Meghan had bullied them or shamed them or made them cry in a coat closet. In any case, Mindy was on The View on Thursday and she was asked about that WLM moment.

Mindy Kaling has weighed in on the social media conversation about her appearance on Meghan Markle’s new Netflix show. The “Sex Lives of College Girls” creator, 45, appeared on Thursday’s episode of “The View” to discuss her new show “Running Point,” when co-host Alyssa Farrah Griffin asked what her experience was like cooking and hanging out with Meghan, 43, on the duchess’ cooking and lifestyle series, “With Love, Meghan.”

‘You know, I had a great time,” she began before alluding to social media chatter about an exchange she had with Meghan over the duchess’ last name (it’s “Sussex” not “Markle”).

“I noticed that whenever I do something, anything related to Meghan, it becomes like…,” she began before pausing as she seemed to search for the right words.

“Big news,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg offered. “Big news,” Kaling repeated in agreement.

“We were making sandwiches and, you know, then they’ll push in on my face on TikTok and they’ll be like, ‘Look at this emotion you felt,’ and I honestly didn’t even remember, ’cause we shot it, like, nine months ago,” the “Mindy Project” star said of the online analysis of the exchange between her and Meghan over the duchess’s official surname. Kaling added, “I loved my time with Meghan.”

“I’m also like, let her promote her show, I’m here to talk about ‘Running Point!’” Kaling continued, referring to her own Netflix series, starring Kate Hudson, which was just renewed for a second season.

Of her experience on “With Love, Meghan,” Kaling reiterated, “It was great. It’s fascinating seeing … the reaction to her.”

Goldberg responded, “People love to hate her. People love to talk about her.” Joy Behar agreed, saying, “She triggers people.”

Sunny Hostin praised Meghan’s series, calling it “a beautifully made show and it’s aspirational. I loved it, and I loved you in it,” she told Kaling.

[From The NY Post]

I really hope those same people aren’t going to analyze this to death as well (I already saw one Daily Mail headline, so it’s too late!). I think that’s why Mindy almost seems wary of saying too much because she’s surprised to find herself in the middle of yet another Meghan “drama.” Mindy is like, shrug, I loved doing the show, please stop putting me in this or using me as a proxy for why you think Meghan is blah blah blah. She should have told those people to go touch grass.

Mindy Kaling on The View talking about her experience being on With Love, Meghan. pic.twitter.com/FZTCylSOrt

— Sussex Fan (@Catsinacradle24) March 6, 2025

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Netflix and Meghan’s IG.

In this week’s People Magazine cover story, the Duchess of Sussex tells the magazine that the Sussex surname is very important to her because “it’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children. I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.” She also called “Sussex” part of “our love story.” I did not find this scandalous or notable at all – the Sussex titles were given to Harry and Meghan by QEII, and King Charles either can’t remove them or doesn’t even want to try to remove the titles. The “Sussex” title/name remains the only thing “given” to Meghan which those people haven’t taken back, and it IS Meghan’s married name. Harry and Meghan bought the sussex.com domain name and they update everyone on their work there. They ARE the Sussexes and the Sussex family. But it’s become a thing this week, especially because Meghan emphasized her married name in the Mindy Kaling episode of With Love, Meghan:

Meghan Markle says she wants to be known from now on as Meghan Sussex. Meghan delivered the naming edict in the second episode of her otherwise studiously conflict-free show, With Love, Meghan, as she is talking to her guest, Mindy Kaling, the former star of The Office, about her childhood. Meghan is explaining how she was a “latchkey” kid and ate a lot of microwaved food as a child, including Jack in the Box tacos. Kaling says: “I don’t think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle has eaten Jack in the Box.”

The jolly upbeat music which accompanies almost every other second of the Netflix show actually stops and, in a split second, the atmosphere drops several degrees. A faux-amused Meghan stares very hard at the cucumber she is chopping and says, “It’s so funny, too, that you keep calling me Meghan Markle. You know I’m Sussex now.”

Kaling looks genuinely worried, rather like, a Sussex staffer about to be ripped a new one by the boss, as Meghan, more in sorrow than in anger, talks Kaling through the concept of surnames, saying, “When you have kids, you go, ‘I share my name with my children and that feels so… I didn’t know how meaningful that would be to me, it just means so much, to go, ‘This is our family name, our little family name.’”

Kaling, who has three children, replies, “Well, now I know—and I love it.”

The frosty incident occurs as Meghan and Kaling prepare cucumber sandwiches for a kids party with wedges of cucumber so thick they would have made the late Queen Elizabeth II blanch if they’d been served at Windsor Castle.

[From The Daily Beast]

This moment between Mindy and Meghan was also caught by various Daily Mail columnists too, as they all dished on how Meghan “lost her temper” with Mindy or something. This reaction to that WLM moment is actually so revealing to me. I finally “got” why Kensington Palace staffers are still weeping in closets over Meghan’s brief time in the UK. THIS is what freaks them out. Meghan gently correcting someone and/or stating a preference. That’s all it was – Mindy used Meghan’s maiden name and Meghan was like, please use my married name, I’m Sussex now. This is what all of those “bullying accusations” were about all along, this is why they’re still screaming about 5 am emails.

The whole “our family name is Sussex” thing being turned into a controversy also reminds me of the drama with Archie’s birth certificate. Remember, initially Meghan was listed on her son’s birth certificate as “Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.” Someone in Buckingham Palace or Kensington Palace went behind Meghan and Harry’s backs and removed “Meghan” from the birth certificate and just left her title. It’s still mind-numbingly dehumanizing. Which is the whole goal of this “Sussex surname” controversy – to dehumanize Meghan and act as if she can’t or shouldn’t use her married name.

Photos courtesy of Netflix, Meghan’s IG.

Mindy Kaling is showrunner and creator of a new show called Running Point. It’s loosely based on the real-like Lakers president Jeanie Buss, but with a Mindy Kaling-flare. It stars Kate Hudson as a party-girl heiress who has to assume the management of her family’s NBA team. It’s got a dash of Succession, because she has loutish brothers. Plus a dash of Ted Lasso, because it’s also about the team and the players. Time Magazine profiled Mindy about the show and she ended up talking a lot about possibly getting back into acting and how she filmed an episode of the Duchess of Sussex’s With Love, Meghan. This is the second time Mindy has done something with Meghan – Mindy also appeared on Archetypes, and now the Netflix show. Mindy is a big squadie, I think. Some highlights from Time:

How ‘Running Point’ came to be: “It was actually Jeanie Buss who reached out because she liked The Mindy Project and The Office. So many people write about her and make shows where she’s a tertiary character. She was like, “I run this. I want to be a producer on a show about my own life.” She is so open. We consult her for real-life details all the time. There have been very specific players or very specific people in her personal life where she’ll say, “Maybe we won’t touch upon that,” but she says that far less than any other person I’ve ever known. She really gave Ike Barinholtz, Dave Stassen, and I carte blanche on her life because she wanted it to be funny. And she knew the realer it gets, the funnier it will be.”

On Kate Hudson’s rom-com queen credentials: “Kate Hudson and other rom-com stars—like Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock—are the type of people who can say tough things, and you don’t dislike them for saying it. We’re really stealing that for her in this boss role because she’s a tough employer. Also, Kate is so iconically L.A. She’s from her own Hollywood dynasty. She has known Jeanie since she was a kid. She has been going to Lakers games since she was little. She is really involved in that L.A. world.

Whether Mindy will ever come back to acting: “Thank you for asking. I always feel flattered when people remember that I’m a performer since it’s been such a long time. Every show that we’ve done, I’ve been tempted. Never Have I Ever was literally about an Indian-American family living in Southern California. If I can’t cast myself in this world, I don’t know when I will. But nobody was writing, “Where’s Mindy? Why isn’t she on the show?” Maybe it’s better to not be in them. Right now I have three kids under the age of 7, but I miss it. I would like to return to screen in the next couple years.”

How she appears in ‘With Love, Meghan’: “I was on maternity leave with my daughter in March and April, and Meghan texted me that she was doing a show where she was going to cook for her friends. Would I want to come to Montecito and have her cook for me? I wanted to get taken care of in that moment of my life. That was a fun maternity leave field trip. And I left with a basket of fresh produce and homemade jam and hot sauce because she knew I loved hot sauce. She’s a very generous woman who knew I needed a break.”

Whether she picked up any hosting tips from Meghan: “Spoiler alert: I did. The theme was throwing a party for children. I love cooking, but I’m really not good at entertaining. I don’t know anything about how you’re not supposed to use overhead lighting when people come over. You’re supposed to use little lamps. But Meghan just knows how to do that stuff. For kids’ parties I usually just go to the party supply store and get paper things, which I don’t judge and neither does she. But it was fun to learn simple ways to do a homemade kids’ party. I think a misconception about Meghan is that she’s in any way fussy or has expectations of fanciness. She really is a down-to-earth person who knows a lot of fun tricks to make entertaining and cooking easier.

[From Time]

“For kids’ parties I usually just go to the party supply store and get paper things, which I don’t judge and neither does she.” Don’t let the Daily Mail get ahold of this interview, they’ll spin a conspiracy that Meghan was the one who took down the Middletons’ Party Pieces!!! Or they’ll say Meghan was obviously referencing the Middleton family business and they should sue the Sussexes! Anyway, I love that Mindy really dials down the drama when it comes to talking about Meghan. As for Running Point, it comes out at the end of the month on Netflix. I might give it a try.

Photos courtesy of Netflix, Cover Images, Avalon Red.