Kumar Goes To . . . The White House

Kal Penn, of Harold and Kumar fame, is giving up acting for the time being and going to work for Obama:

Actor Kal Penn, who stumped around the country for the Obama presidential campaign, is going to leave Hollywood to work in the Obama White House, EW.Com is reporting. The White House confirmed to the Chicago Sun-Times that Penn is joining the Obama administration. * * *

Penn told EW: "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."

Penn is also a regular on the TV show House, but he'll be leaving that show to work for Obama:

[PENN] "The ultimate irony, of course, is that I love being on House. There's not a smarter group of people that I've been surrounded by in television. So I thought about it for a very long time before I went and talked to David and Katie."

"What was that conversation like?"

PENN: "We had a very long discussion. And I remember David saying, 'Are you telling me that you're unhappy with the show and that you want to leave so you can go off and do a different show?' And I was like, 'Not at all. I'm actually saying the exact opposite, which is I'm having an incredible time, but there's something aching in me to do something completely different and take a break from the acting thing for a while.' And with their blessing, we were able to work it out."

They should work Penn's departure from House into an episode -- his character could announce that he's leaving to work in politcs, and Dr. House can then respond by saying, "you're an idiot."

UPDATE: I guess I should have watched House last night (spoiler alert if you happened to have Tivo'd that episode and haven't watched it yet).