Kal Penn + Melanin + Korea

Funny. Maybe.

Some Korean woman told me I'd look good if only I were lighter-skinned. I thought I just needed to lose weight, not melanin.

Pacific Citizen's Q & A With Kalpen Modi (AKA Kal Penn)

Just wanted to post up a quick link to the Q & A With Kalpen Modi down at Pacific Citizen where JACL members asked about a typical day, his biggest challenge, the benefits of health care reform for APAs - and more.

Kal Penn Makes It To The White House

Just in case you were wondering if Kal Penn ever made it to the White House - yes he did:

On Monday, he became an associate director in the Office of Public Liaison, with a focus on connecting Obama with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, as well as arts groups. Penn, who backed Obama during the campaign, says the new job has nothing to do with his life as an actor and he expects to be treated the same as any other White House staffer. When asked about the differences between the new job and his work in Hollywood, Penn quipped that he now wears a suit.

Glad to see they finally found a desk for him.

Kal Penn: Sometimes You're In Sometimes You're Out?

Reading about this on the AAA-Fund Blog about whether or not Kal Penn is actually going to be working for the Obama Administration after all (because there's no set date):

Now we hear Penn may not be joining the White House after all (via TheWrap):

“Though we look forward to him joining the team, Kal is not working for the administration at this time,” Shin Inouye, White House director of Specialty Media told The Wrap.

In fact, Penn has no official start date with the Obama administration.

So is Penn in or out? Either way, there should be a speedy resolution.

Agreed.

Here's a little more The Wrap:

In a non-administration capacity, he has been traveling in the Middle East, visiting American troops in the region. The actor, who was a visiting Asian American Studies lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 2008, has also been speaking on college campuses.

In recent weeks, Penn’s spoken at the University of Delaware and Albany's Union College, where, as the school's website stated, he planned to discuss "the political side of pop culture and talk about what it’s like to be a racial minority in the American film industry." [...]

Still the White House maintains that Penn is their guy and that he’s on board… eventually. "We are very glad Kal is joining the administration," says spokesman Shin Inouye, "we just don't know when that is going to be."

So is he in? Or is he out?

Harold and Kumar Interviews

Check out the interviews on DesiHits.com.

Out on DVD: The Namesake

If you're on the lookout for a new movie to add to your collection, Mira Nair's film The Namesake, starring Kal Penn and based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, was just released on DVD.

View the trailer