Mindy Kaling’s New Movie LATE NIGHT Showcases Strong Professional Women

It’s not hard to decide what, in my opinion, is the best part of Mindy Kaling’s new comedy movie LATE NIGHT. While the script written by Kaling and the acting by leads Kaling and Emma Thompson are great, for me the best part was that both Kaling’s character and Thompson’s character have professional jobs (and the romantic part was subservient to the overall story).

Although I highly recommend seeing the movie for entertainment, it is very gratifying to see professional women portrayed on screen in a comedy. Of course, so far in real life no woman has been a long-term host of a late night television show. (Perhaps real life will soon catch up to reel life.)

In the Q & A I was privileged to attend at a screening of the movie in Los Angeles on June 16, 2019, Kaling answered a range of audience questions. And one thing she said made a big impression on me:

Kaling said she likes romantic comedies (she mentioned WORKING GIRL and BROADCAST NEWS as examples) in which the female leads have professional jobs and the romance comes about in connection with the woman’s job. I absolutely agree with this preference!

Personal note to Mindy Kaling: I write this kind of romantic comedies. Early versions of four of these scripts of mine are published in a book on Amazon. And of the four scripts, you would be great for the female lead in three of them.