Spoiler Alert (DVR users should avert their eyes): All of a sudden our website traffic doubled in the span of a couple of hours. What the hell is going on I wondered. House M.D. was on earlier tonight and I guess a lot of people switched over to watch since the NCAA final sucked so much. The Fox network has put up an obituary of Dr. Lawrence Kutner, played by actor Kal Penn, online:
Dr. Kutner was born in Freemont, California. Tragedy marred his early life as he lost his parents, Karamchand and Niki Baidwan, who were shot during an armed robbery. After a couple of years in foster care, Julia and Richard Kutner adopted Lawrence. He showed great promise in high school, winning a Westinghouse Science award for an experiment involving dark matter. His adoptive parents mused that he showed a freethinking, inventive streak from a young age.
Kutner received a full scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Physics. He then attended the University of Tel Aviv Medical School and completed an internship and residency in Sports and Rehabilitation Medicine through the University of Colorado. “He wanted to be a doctor since seeing ‘M.A.S.H.’ as a kid”, said his close friend and colleague Dr. Chris Taub. “I think he modeled himself a little bit after Hawkeye Pierce.”
Kutner’s girlfriend Nicole Brewster remembered that Lawrence, being adopted and of Indian ancestry, always felt like an outsider. But she said he didn’t resent it – instead, he felt the experience gained him added insight and perspective. [Link]
There is the possibility that this is all a dream and that House will wake up tomorrow to find Kutner alive (maybe in the hospital’s shower). Hey, at least he wasn’t killed by a black smoke monster. Let’s see what @kal_penn has to say about his future plans tomorrow.
UPDATE: Penn has announced his plans. Click “Read More” to learn what comes next for him
Ok. Now I am jealous. In the comments section below we learn that Penn got a job with the Obama administration.
I understand it was your decision to leave House. True?
KAL PENN: Yes. I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I’m going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They’re basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It’s similar to what I was doing on the campaign.
Will you actually be working in the White House?
PENN: This particular office is in the executive building. The White House has two buildings: the actual White House and an old Navy building called the Old Executive Office. [Link]
Alan, SkepMod’s comment is funny–it goes to how in the US all things vaguely South Asian/Middle Eastern get muddled together, especially in movies and television.
Kal penn is a one trick pony. The twenty something defiance of authority Kumar persona does not work for a thirty something actor, just ask Eddie Murphy. Kal penn has been unable to translate his kumar success into other comedic roles. His attempt at a dramatic performace in the namesake was a calamity. He has decided to shift into politics while he still has name recognition.
I notice nobody bit my bait here;
16 · Sepiaaahhh on April 7, 2009 01:30 PM · Direct link Is Kal Penn considered good looking? Is he Gujarati? I thought he was OK looking in Namesake, but nothing to write home about. I wonder if women in India would find him attractive? I often say that we in the West are more lenient on looks, that DBDs have higher standards (and no, not talking about the fair skin obsession either, but features).
My psycho-sociological perspective on this has to do with gender. We all know, from past experience, that if Penn were female, the very first comment on this thread would have been about her looks and many of the proceeding comments would have developed the them further. Interesting.
Next stop Med school! A la Gawande. These political jobs are not forever.
It seems like Obama is giving administration jobs to loads of brown people…except this one. Geez. :((((((
I don’t have the connections, I guess….sigh :/
too bad obama wasn’t president before they made the namesake!
sorry, dude. and i just heard of another one who has been offered a position…
That was an actual scene in the show. I guess History or general knowledge isn’t the House writers’ strongest suit. I guess actually watching things before commenting on them and actually understanding other people’s comments isn’t Alan’s strongest suit. When SkepMod wrote “Actual factchecking and accuracy is for historians,” the point was that the writers of the show didn’t check for accuracy. SkepMod obviously knows what’s what.
Awww c’mon the Heels deserved to win. So it was a good game, not a nailbiter like the House perhaps 🙂
If my parents were called Karamchand and Niki Baidwan and I had to call myself Lawrence Kutner, I’d suddenly kill myself too.