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ShareNEW YORK: Instead of looking for their man in Washington, Team Obama should be chasing him on the streets of Mumbai.
Former Harold and Kumar star Kal Penn received glowing praise when he left the riches of the hit Fox show House in April to accept a position in the Obama administration as an associate director in the White House office of public liaison. Since then, Penn has been, according to his Twitter account, madly busy. And, glaringly absent from Washington.
"Where in the world is Kal Penn?" asked The Washington Post as it sifted through rumours that the long-time Obama supporter was having second thoughts about taking up the job offered by Obama in Washington, DC.
Turns out that Penn is in Mumbai on a film shoot. The actor's spokesperson told TVGuide.com that Penn is in India filming Ravi Walia's Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain with Martin Sheen and Mischa Barton. Penn could be in India for all of July and August filming the movie set against the horrors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak disaster in Bhopal.
Penn is also scheduled to team up again with John Cho to film A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas in the summer of 2010.
Still, the White House maintains that Penn is their man and he has no official starting date. "We are very glad Kal is joining the administration. We just don't know when that is going to be," White House director of specialty media Shin Inouye told The Wrap.
Of course, Penn could be taking the longest road to travel to Washington as it puts his lucrative film and TV career on hold. The public liaison position pays $70,000 a year or what the Hollywood actor makes per episode on the popular House series. Penn's declaration in April that he was leaving House to serve in the Obama administration was handled on the show with his character Kutner being killed in a suicide that traumatised his fans.
