Actor Kal Penn credits Gandhi as he leaves Hollywood for Obama's Washington

President Obama, for all his charms, could not persuade CNN's medical wonder Sanjay Gupta to give up his network salary and private-sector lifestyle and seek to become the new U.S. surgeon general.

But this week Team Obama did manage to pull off a major medical coup in that nexus between television and politics that might be called Hollywood on the Potomac.

As the Ticket reported earlier, actor Kal Penn, who gained fame as the costar of the raucous and profane cult favorite "Harold and Kumar" stoner comedies, and is seen above playing a doctor on Fox TV's popular "House" with actor Hugh Laurie, is heading to Washington to work from what he calls "the front door" of Obama's White House.

To pave the way for Penn's departure from the cast of "House," a medical wonder of its own, producers decided to have his character commit suicide on Monday night's show. The buzz helped lift the show's ratings past ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

Penn, 31, campaigned for Barack Obama last year. Word is the Indian American actor was a big hit on college campuses. Now Penn will become associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison, an envoy to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, to Hollywood and to young people.

Unlike Gupta, who turned down the Obama job citing family considerations, Penn had the decency to acknowledge to Entertainment Weekly that leaving Hollywood for Washington does entail a pay cut. In fact, no manse for Penn -- he said he's shopping for an apartment.

"There's not a lot of financial reward in these jobs," he said. "But, obviously, the opportunity to serve in a capacity like this is an incredible honor."

Penn said he loves the "House" crew of actors, and hesitated before leaving the hit show. But he said he was drawn to Washington by his grandparents' history -- and values -- in marching with Mahatma Gandhi.

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. And in '06 I started this international studies program at Stanford, where they actually let you do most of the course work online. So it was something I could do while I was acting. And I thought this might be the right time to go off and do something else. 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.

The New Jersey-born actor has had some experience working with Washington types. In "Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay," he smoked pot with a fictional George W. Bush.

-- Johanna Neuman

[For the record: An earlier version of this post misspelled the name Gandhi as Ghandi.]

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Photo credit: Adam Taylor/Fox TV

Comments

[Srenik]

The correct spelling is Gandhi and NOT Ghandi.. The correct pronunciation is Gaan-Thee

[Rosh]

Please correct the spelling of 'Gandhi' in the heading,as you might ne offending some people

[Michiko]

It is not "Ghandi" but "Gandhi" - Poor journalism you cannot even spell.

[Shabbi Khan]

Atleast get Gandhi's spelling right? No wonder the newspaper industry is struggling. Poor quality.

[Kunal]

The name should have read 'Gandhi' and not 'Ghandi' on your headline. It is insulting to get the names of such world leaders incorrect, not to mention the lack of respect and callousness.

[Ashok Sangani]

Gandhi and not Ghandi.

[vidyaranya]

It's very shameful that you cannot spell the name of modern age's most respected non-violent hero. Don't blame it on a typo. Most Americans are ignorant/arrogant to spell it this way.

[Rahul in Albany NY]

Its Gandhi you jerks

[akki]

Actor Kal Penn credits Ghandi as he leaves Hollywood for Obama's Washington -- IT is Gandhi. not Ghandi

[dasjfkl;]

please change the spelling in the title from ghandi to gandhi

[j]

Please correct the TYPO in the headline.

The name is GANDHI. A little caution should be exercised before publishing the article with the name of such a Great soul.

[Millenium King]

What a shock. "Rock Star" Obama picks hollywood celebs with zero qualifications besides their race to fill important government positions.

Another shock: brain-dead celebrities equate Obama with Ghandi after taking a couple biased college courses in Poli Sci.

Kal Penn is an idiot and needs to learn how to form his own opinions.

[Jagadeesh Sunkavalli]

I think the author was forced to take on this news by his boss or team that is either ignorant or careless of 'Gandhi'. I think it's a mistake but for God's sake it is LA Times, if this is the standards you stick to then no wonder you will lose in the struggling media industry.

[Mr Orange]

Millenium King: Are you doing a parody of a angry reactionary who doesn't read a single complete sentence from the page before responding? If so, then I salute you for a job well done.

You see, I read the title, too -- but then I had to actually read the article to find out FOR WHAT Kal Penn was crediting Gandhi. Then I read the comments so that I would spell Gandhi correctly.

[tioedong]

Lett me get this straight.

Obama couldn't hire a real doctor so he's hiring one who plays one on tv.

What's wrong with this picture?

[Claudia]

@ Millenium King who wrote:
hollywood celebs with zero qualifications:

You mean the likes of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, right ?

[James Johnson]

so what if it offended some people, if they don`t know or can`t tell thats it`s a typo about Gandhi, you shouldn`t be reading it in the first place!!, damn people. you truely are a sad bunch, don`t you have a life??, geeze

[James Johnson]

Obama!, what a waste, z

[Siddharth]

What a shock. "Rock Star" Obama picks hollywood celebs with zero qualifications besides their race to fill important government positions.

Another shock: brain-dead celebrities equate Obama with Ghandi after taking a couple biased college courses in Poli Sci.

Kal Penn is an idiot and needs to learn how to form his own opinions.

Second that...

[Millenium King]

tioedong

FYI - Ronald Reagan was deeply involved in politics in the 1950s and 1960s, including supporting Barry Goldwater's campaign. He did not become governor of California until 1967. He did not become president until 1980. So, I would hardly say he lacked experience. You might want to help yourself to an encyclopedia.

And Schwarzenegger just vomited up the largest tax increase a single state has ever enacted, so yeah, I would say hiring Hollywood morons into political office is a bad idea.

[GuessWho]

To call Penn an idiot means that you will have to apologize to idiots EVERYWHERE.