Kumar Prefers Burgers to Barack

Kal Penn, best known for playing Kumar in the Harold & Kumar movies, is leaving his post of Associate Director of Public Engagement in the Obama Administration after less than a year on the job.

Penn is set to reunite with Harold & Kumar co-star John Cho in the third installment of the series A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. The movie will be shot this summer and due to be released in November or December of 2011. Penn & Cho rose to fame after Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle became a box office hit in the summer of 2004. I guess Penn prefers burgers to Barack.

When Penn (whose given name is Kalpen Modi) accepted this post he played Dr. Lawrence Kutner on the FOX TV series House starring Hugh Laurie. Penn's character was written out of the show by way of suicide. At the time I wrote, "Hopefully, Penn won't face a similar fate to Dr. Kutner should he not live up to President Obama's expectations."

Well, it might be more a case of the Obama Administration not living up to Penn's expectations. He wanted to give this gig "at least" a year or two. Certainly he wasn't making the kind of money he was making in movies and in television. Let's also consider that he was in a low level position and probably couldn't effect the kind of change he wanted. No doubt it's easier to get things done in Hollywood than it is in Washington. Although the White House doesn't have Hollywood's cutting edge special effects it does have plenty of smoke and mirrors.