Kal Penn’s not done juggling stoner movies and politics. After announcing his departure from House to join the Obama administration, then taking a few months to actually start his gig at the Office of Public Engagement, the actor is about to leave for the set of Harold and Kumar 3 (possibly 3-D!) after less than a year.
At last night’s New Yorker party for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Penn framed the move as a contractual obligation, telling us, “I signed a piece of paper. It’s Time Warner, I made a commitment and they said they’re filming now. I thought, ‘Come on, guys, can’t you give me a few more years?’ It’s a seven-week shoot.” After completing the final installment of his stoner trilogy — which Vulture, after reading the script, has called “another loosely glued-together batch of dick and weed jokes that should satisfy fans of 2004’s improbably great H&K Go to White Castle and really delight anyone who liked 2008’s not-quite-as-funny sequel H&K Escape From Guantanamo Bay” — Penn plans to return to politics.
Well, probably: “I’m hoping to come back to this. It may not be in the White House. Maybe four or eight years after that I’ll go back to movies. But I don’t want to put a definite date on it.” Don’t tie him down.
