Kal Penn‘s decision to quit House (with his Lawrence Kutner character committing suicide) for a gig as associate director in the White House’s office of public liaison is admirable. He seems like a good guy. I never had it in for him personally. But I still maintain that in some…no, several of his films (the Harold and Kumar and Van Wilder pics but also in Mira Nair’s The Namesake) Penn was extremely convincing as a dumb-ass.