Will The Office Be The Same Without Mindy Kaling? [Updated]

It’s big news that this is Steve Carrell’s last season on The Office. But to us, it’s bigger news that Mindy Kaling is leaving! [An update on that below.]

Last night on his talk show, George Lopez asked Kaling if people keep bugging her about Carrell leaving the show. She said yes, and added:

“My contract’s up at the end of this year, too, but I guess because Steve’s a movie star, people care more about that than they do about me leaving,”

Ugh. Mindy Kaling is one of the best parts of The Office. Not only is Kelly Kapoor every mall-obsessed, baby-voiced annoying coworker you’ve ever loved to loathe, but Kaling has written some of the best episodes. For instance: “Ben Franklin,” the one where Michael plans a bachelor party and Jim ends up hiring a Ben Franklin impersonator instead of a stripper. She also wrote “Secret Santa,” in which Michael is upset when Jim allows Phyllis to be Santa — and Andy tries to give the 12 Days of Christmas to Erin in the Secret Santa exchange and she suffers an unfortunate incident with live birds.

In September, Kaling was quoted as saying:

“This isn’t some big scoop or anything, but I can see this season being my last. Right now, I’m hankering for new adventures … Ninety percent of the time I’m having romantic-comedy fantasies in which I’m wearing little pencil skirts and hurrying down to the subway.”

So where will we get our Mindy fix? Well, she’s written a script, called The Low Self-Esteem Of Lizzie Gillespie. Maybe we’ll be seeing her on the big screen? Eventually? She seems to have abandoned her blog, but there’s always her Twitter. Sigh.

UPDATE!

Mindy Tweets: “Guys, I didn’t say I’m leaving my awesome show! Just that my contract ends.” Renegotiation time! Give this lady the big bucks, please.

Mindy Kaling Talks Leaving ‘The Office,’ Suggests Working for ‘Lopez’ (VIDEO) [TV Squad]