"Harold and Kumar Go To the White House": From White Castle to the White House

[ksoze]

** House spoiler **


In a bittersweet and shocking episode of Fox's House last night, Kal Penn character (Dr. Kutner) committed suicide and ended his multi year run on the award winning show. Good news is he is heading to the White House as associate director in the White House office of public liaison. The "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle' star has been active in Obama's campaign and gave up a great job on a top show to work with the new administration. More at HuffPost.

[Thrill]

1. Is this true? He's putting his acting career on hold for public service?

[Barack_America]

2. That's wonderful. He worked SO hard for Obama.

From Iowa until the end.

I got to meet him several times in his efforts to rally students here in Philly. Great, normal guy and an absolute wonk on Obama's policies.

:applause:

[harun]

11. A video of him and Olivia Wilde in Iowa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXbESw45Sk4

[Cha]

18. Have we come a long way!

Thanks for that cold blast from the past, harun.

[YOY]

3. Got a link?

n/t

[Aloha Spirit]

4. Here's the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/07/kal-penn-leaving-house-fo_n_183904.html

I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I'm going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They're basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It's similar to what I was doing on the campaign.

Safe to say you're taking a huge pay cut?

PENN: Oh, yeah. There's not a lot of financial reward in these jobs. But, obviously, the opportunity to serve in a capacity like this is an incredible honor.

How long has this been in the works?

PENN: I've been thinking about for a while. I love what I do as an actor. I couldn't love it more. But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service. I went to a performing arts high school, but I still took a bunch of those dorky political science classes. It's probably because of the value system my grandparents instilled in me. They marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and that was always in the back of my head. So the past couple of years I thought about it a little more. And in '06 I started this international studies program at Stanford, where they actually let you do most of the course work online. So it was something I could do while I was acting. And I thought this might be the right time to go off and do something else.

Interesting!

[YOY]

5. Very interesting.

Kal is one funny cat. Smart as well.

[Aloha Spirit]

7. I agree. Leaving behind a lucrative acting job for public service is a whole new kind of cool

and I hope it's representative of how young Americans feel about their generation: time to move away from the ledge of celebrity and consumerism.

[gauguin57]

6. His character's exit from the show really was shocking and sudden.

And I immediately started wondering what other offer Kal Penn had that would take him away from the show permanently ... thanks for the info!

[AtomicKitten]

8. at a monster cut in pay -- inspiring!

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. It sure was shocking. It occurred to me last night, though, that we never really did see

his character outside of work so it made it all the more difficult to understand why he (the character) did it.

Very cool that Kal has made this choice, but I will miss him on House. I loved his character so much.

[MadMaddie]

20. Yea, we were stunned too...he was our favorite character.

[Jennicut]

9. I love that he is doing this...public service over an acting career

Wow.

[harun]

10. Sure, NOW you put "spoiler" after you ruined it!

J/K, I will be fine :-).

[Sebastian Doyle]

13. Didn't the White House do a background check on this guy before they hired him?

Yeah, his brief stay at Gitmo was all a misunderstanding, but for God's sake, he got high with Chimpy at the pig farm. And he's rumored to be involved in the murder of Neil Patrick Harris at some whorehouse down south.

This could be trouble.......

[Hellataz]

15. As long as his taxes are paid up, I'm sure they'll overlook the rest. ;)

[Hellataz]

14. I just saw this on CNN, and it made me feel better about him leaving "House"

I've always like Kal Penn and think he'll do a great Job. I hope he gets inspired to get more into politics and runs for office one day.

[AyanEva]

16. I'm impressed!

I'm rather glad I missed that episode of House- I probably would've been like D: and cried. I was going to watch it but I forgot because I've been wrapped up in coverage of the new Star Trek movie. I was being a forum geek. Anyway, this is really cool and good for him! He's fortunate to have this kind of opportunity. Acting will always be there if he wants to return to it at some point, but this position won't. I'd do it too!

[Cha]

17. I love this guy,

Kal Penn:loveya::patriot:

[tridim]

19. Anyone know if Penn smokes the good stuff IRL?