Actor Kal Penn says he’s joining President Obama’s administration
On the heels of Mickey Rourke’s boxing match comes another Hollywood development that sounds just too good to be true.
Actor Kal Penn is trading Hollywood for the Obama administration.
As EW.com first reported Tuesday, Penn — best known for his role as a pot-loving slacker in “Harold & Kumar Got to White Castle” — will part of the White House Office of Public Liaison, which is run by Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
The actor, who is of Gujarati Indian descent, will be primarily involved in dealing with Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and the arts community.
“I’ve been thinking about [moving into politics] for a while,” Penn, 31, told EW.com. “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.”
According to CNN.com, which confirmed the story with the White House, Penn endorsed Obama’s White House bid in late 2007 and appeared frequently on the campaign trail last year.
Penn told EW.com that his new job is “similar to what I was doing on the campaign.”
“I’m going to be the associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison,” he explained. “They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They’re basically the front door of the White House.”
News of Penn’s decision came a day after his character on the hit medical drama “House M.D.,“ Dr. Lawrence Kutner, met a nasty demise. That move alone sparked a lot of buzz.
It also got me thinking.
Given his 35-episode run on “House,” Penn could have just as easily opted for a job in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Roles in “Epic Movie” and the “Van Wilder” series — both examples of catastrophic cinema — would give the actor an edge at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The same goes for duds like “Bachelor Party Las Vegas” and “Malibu’s Most Wanted.“
In fact, I’m pretty sure that former President George W. Bush declared 2005’s “Son of the Mask” a natural disaster zone.
And what about the Department of Homeland Security?
Penn played a terrorist on “24″ and broke out of one of the world’s toughest detention centers in 2008’s “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.“ Talk about the inside track.
Heck, the actor even starred in a TV movie called, you guessed it, “Homeland Security.“
What do you think? Is Kal Penn making the right move?
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