White House celeb no-show Kal Penn: Is he replaceable?

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Back in April, ‘House’ star Kal Penn announced that he was ditching Hollywood for a weighty Obama administration gig as associate director at the White House Office of Public Liaison. At the time, we were all wildly impressed that an actor could cast aside the glamor and ego gratification of showbiz for the wonky world of serious politics. But perhaps it was too good to be true. Sadly, the Web is full of reports this morning, led by this post from the Wrap, that Penn -- ahem -- hasn’t actually shown up for work yet, with no official start date in sight.

If Penn is bailing out, who would be a good celebrity for the White House to recruit as a replacement? Actually, I have no idea. For some reason, I can only imagine the absolutely wrong kind of celebrity, the kind of loose cannon that the Obama administration would sorely regret ever allowing within a 100-mile radius of the Oval Office. Here’s my list of ‘Top Ten Celebrities That Should Never Be Working at the White House Office of Public Liaison’ (feel free to offer any choices of your own):

10) Chris Brown

9) Andy Dick

8) Amy Winehouse

7) Ben Silverman

6) Jon and Kate

5) Sacha Baron Cohen

4) Sean Penn

3) Alec, Stephen, Billy or Daniel Baldwin

2) Joaquin Phoenix and his beard

1) Mickey Rourke