Entertainment Weekly broke the news today that actor Kal Penn (the darker half of Harold and Kumar) is taking a hiatus from the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood scene to try his hand at politics. Penn was a major supporter of President Obama during his campaign (good call), and he will join the administration as part of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Sounds downright important! I guess it’s safe to assume that he was one of those rare pariahs in La La Land who preferred cracking open a book to doing blow with the cast of Gossip Girl.
Prior to this announcement, Penn had taken a steady job as one of the main characters on the absurdly entertaining Fox drama House (it’s the one about the doctor who is smart enough to know that everyone inherently sucks), and his character quickly became one of my favorites on the show. His sudden and quite dramatic exit this week left a lot of jaws on the floor, but good on him for making such a hard career choice. Not everyone would be so quick to walk away from the ridiculous money that TV and film actors earn, myself included. Hell, as a famous star I could finally afford to buy every pony in America, and then I’d be positively swimming in cash once this country finally figures out how good those things taste with a little A-1 sauce.
I was going to write you about this, but I wasn’t sure if you and Mandi would have seen the latest “House” yet (and seeing as I screwed the pooch with my semi-bitter, semi-sarcastic pronouncement of the final installment of “Battlestar Galactica,” I didn’t want to follow that performance by unleashing a hot stream of surprise sex on any passing pooches). I was searching for my lower jaw for a good half of that episode… The shot at the end with House having found that picture of Kutner where whatever demons he was fighting were not covered up with a smile was an inspired bit of television drama.
It was actually the doctor who put a camera down my throat who told me Mr. Penn was going to start working for the President (maybe he’s an avid atmtn.com reader!)… and then he deprived me of consciousness.