Kumar Goes To The White House!

Kal Penn, of Harold and Kumar fame, and most recently House, has left the show behind, to pursue other ventures. No, it wasn't another role or movie deal that made him quit House (spoilers for his exit are after the jump if you TiVoed,) but a new job - in President Obama's administration!

That's a long way from White Castle, y'all.

Penn got the political itch after working on the President's campaign, and was offered a job as the assistant director of the office of public liaison. Penn interviews that although leaving House was "bittersweet" that he is now pursuing his real passion:

"What the OPL does is similar in a sense to what I was doing on the campaign in that they try to take the administration itself out of Washington. So they go into communities across the country, continue the sorts of dialogue that people had started during the campaign and basically assure that a bunch of different citizens’ views about their elected officials, about the government, are all happening and working effectively...Two of the communities that I’m sort of going to be the point person for are the arts and Asian-American folks."

Penn also said that he's not neccesarily giving up acting, and that his time in the White House is not set in stone, but that he has always wanted to pursue politics, and that this is the perfect opportunity.

**SPOILER ALERT FOR THE LATEST EPISODE OF HOUSE**

So Penn's character commited suicide, and it was insanely bleak. DAMN. Penn stated this about the departure:

"(it was an) incredibly violent and incredibly depressing thing that happens to my character,"

He goes on to say that he was approached by the show's producers as to if he was leaving the show for other acting work, and he assured them that it was quite the opposite. But why have such a terrible ending? Could it have been a punishment of sorts for messing up the storyline? Or am I dancing with conspiracy theory here?

No matter what, congratulations go out to Kal Penn, and we hope that his time in the White House is everything he hoped it would be.

And let's hope no one in the administration has seen the Harold and Kumar movies, cause, whoa.

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Comments

[Sils]

I think this is great. Penn is a very smart guy, this was a good move for him.

House got all after school special on us at the last episode I watched, it was probably the quickest way to free up Penn and give the show an interesting story line that didn't need him present to tie up. (Although rumor has it the suicide is never really going to be explained... which is kind of how real suicide works, to an extent.)

[Mr Lady]

I never miss House. I missed this one. Talk about your terrible timing.

[JennC]

I was sad to see him leave the show because I loved him in it, but when I heard what he was leaving for I thought, "Yeah, screw that TV show crap". Good for him.

[Tricina]

Goddamn. The way they took him off the show was just depressing. Jesus. I mean, it's House, but still. They killed off the most lovable character on the show.