Kal Penn ('Kumar') Goes to White (Castle) House

Spoiler alert: If you Tivoed "House" last night and haven't watched it yet, this may ruin the surprise ending.

Kal Penn, who played Dr. Lawrence Kutner, one of Dr. House's (Hugh Laurie) diagnosing doctors on the hit FOX show, was killed off in last night's episode via suicide. It was a total shocker, given that anyone who watches the show knows that Penn's character didn't have any serious issues meriting such a horrible fate. It would have been more expected if Dr. Chris Taub, played by Peter Jacobson, was killed off. That character recently lost a lot of money in the stock market on the show and always seems to be having issues with his wife and career path.

But no, it was Kutner who shot himself in the head on last night's show. And it was all so he could take a job in the White House - the real White House, that is. Not a fictional one on TV.

Penn - who got his big break in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," a movie all about two guys searching for White Castle burgers because they have a serious case of marijuana-induced munchies (trailer to the sequel after the jump) - is going to work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to be associate director in the White House Office of Public Liason,
the "front door of the White House." He told Entertainment Weekly he's going to focus on outreach, to help "take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House."

He told EW about his new job at the White House:

"I've been thinking about [moving into politics] for a while. I love what I do as an actor. I couldn't love it more. But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service. I went to a performing arts high school, but I still took a bunch of those dorky political science classes. 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. So the past couple of years I thought about it a little more. ...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."

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Penn helped Barack Obama's presidential campaign and was an early Obama supporter. While on the campaign trail in late 2007 and 2008, the New Jersey-born Penn told TV Guide that he wanted to help younger voters "understand the power that we have" in the democratic process.

"If we can make Facebook $1.6 billion, just think of how deeply we can impact a presidential election, and how much we can change the fate of the free world," he said. "Two families have controlled the White House for the last 20 years. Despite their great intentions, they haven't been able to solve much. We are still having debates over how to solve healthcare, education, national security, and immigration. If high school and college students get involved, caucus and vote, we can finally solve them... in my opinion, by electing Senator Obama."

Penn has appeared in other films including "A Lot Like Love" and "Superman Returns." He had a recurring role on 24 and guest-starred on "Law & Order: SVU," "Spin City," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "NYPD Blue," among others. Before his stint on "House," Penn had a recurring role on another FOX hit, "24," in which he played a member of an Islamic group eyed as potential part of a terrorist plot.

There was in fact a "Harold and Kumar" sequel in 2008 - "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay." In this one, the two are en route to Amsterdam, "the weed capital of the world," when they're arrested after Kumar smokes from a bong in the plane bathroom.

Here's the official trailer:






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