Gawker: kal penn

Famous Person Has Great New Job

Pareene — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:09:16 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Today is Van Wilder sequel star Kal Penn's first day at his new job. His new job at the White House! TV's Dr. Kumar is "an Associate Director in the Office of Public Engagement," working under Valerie Jarrett.

Mr. Kumar Goes to Washington

Richard Lawson — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:29:27 EDT

If you're wondering why his character died on House last night, you now have your answer. Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar) asked to leave the show to take a new job with the Obama administration.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Penn says that he met Obama during the campaign and was since offered a position as a public liaison:

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.

Penn says that's he's not necessarily retiring from acting, and that the time-span of his White House job is unclear, but that he does plan to pursue a career in politics for the long haul. So, good for him.

[EW]

Famous Pothead A Democratic Convention Whip

Ryan Tate — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:00:46 EDT

Here's Kal Penn as captured by the LA Times at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. You may recognize Penn: He's the famous pothead "Kumar" from that famous pothead movie series, Harold & Kumar. Apparently someone asked him to be a "political whip," herding delegates while wearing a headset, and he totally went for it. "The majority of kids I’ve met on the road are struggling," Penn told the newspaper. Well, fine, but when the Republicans want to portray Democratic politicians as of vapid, decadent, amoral Hollywood types, they won't have to go after Paris Hilton and Britney Spears anymore. They've got Penn working the convention floor. And something tells me they won't be emphasizing his role as a physician on House. Anyway, whatever, if you try to mold your self-expression around how political extremists might twist things you'll never come up with culture gems like Harold & Kumar. Enjoy a sampling from their more terroristic oeuvre after the jump.

[LA Times] (Photo by Sarah Wire/LA Times)

Scar-Jo Blames Her Ladyparts For Spurring Obama Email Frenzy

Kyle Buchanan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:20:00 EDT

Now that Scarlett Johansson is finally hitting the road to stump for the upcoming Vicky Cristina Barcelona, reporters have seized on the opportunity to ask her about the important man in her life. No, not her fiancé Ryan Reynolds — we're talking about presidential candidate/father figure Barack Obama. You may recall how the actress made headlines back in June for discussing her email relationship with Obama, a sexy media fantasy that titillated reporters before the Obama campaign itself debunked it. Now, Johansson is claiming that the whole affair got too much attention because of the media's "extreme sexism":

"I kept thinking to myself, 'God, if this was just, like, Kal Penn or George Clooney, or any of the other [Obama] surrogates or supporters ... there wouldn't be [any] question about it," the actress, 23, tells the Associated Press. "Nobody would even talk about it."

..."I was merely trying to express my delight at Obama's commitment in his campaign in every aspect, and his interest and his support [in] his surrogates, and his staff and his fellows, and how wonderful and refreshing that is," she says. "And it was manipulated into such an unfortunate media frenzy of kind of a non-story."

Au contraire, Scar-Jo! We here at Defamer can promise you that if Kal Penn or George Clooney would simply follow your lead and pose provocatively in an open cardigan (see above), we'd mock up a Photoshop before you could even say, "si se puede." Or was that your clone?

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

Scarlett Johansson Blames "Extreme Sexism" for Hoopla Over Obama E-Mails [Us Magazine]

Hey, Neil Patrick Harris on unicorns! Talking...

Seth — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:02:03 EST

Hey, Neil Patrick Harris on unicorns! Talking to us! [haroldandkumar]

LOLgays Winning In Yur Internets

Choire — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:08:21 EDT

For days now, the most important site on the whole internets has been unavailable due to a server move. We speak, naturally, of I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?, the number one hotspot for relaxing pictures of LOLcats. (Don't pretend you don't know about pictures of cats altered to assert script-kiddy humanoid opinions and actions. Don't pretend!) To get us through this horrible gap in our LOLcat consumption, we've wasted most of the morning assembling our very own set of LOLgays. Mmm, Fridays.

—all of us

Kittah [Wikipedia]
How to Create LOLCats aka MemeCat aka Kittah aka Cat Macros [engtech]

Annals Of Typecasting: Brown-Skinned Actor Tied To Terrorists

Mark — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:39:10 EDT

We can almost see the barely concealed look of horror that flashed across the 24 casting director's face when deceptively Anglo-monikered Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle star Kal Penn signed in at his audition for a part as an up-and-coming CTU operative who would play a crucial role in a particularly daring, death-cheating Jack Bauer escape from enemy clutches. Upon discovering that the actor was perhaps not as alabaster-complected as they'd hoped ("Hold on, didn't I ask for Harold? What? Harold wasn't white either?"), much shuffling of script pages occurred as they scrambled to find the sides for the part of the Indian programmer to whom the recently deceased Edgar's job was outsourced, but could finally locate only ones for the "guy who is somehow involved with the Islamic guru running the neighborhood mosque and might be the key to a terrorist plot." The talented Penn, of course, shrugged off the switch and knocked it out of the park, saving the casting department the trouble of sitting through a wasted day of auditions with Latino actors they would deem not "ethnic" enough to be mixed up with terrorists.

"Harold & Kumar" star high on "24" role [THR/Reuters]