When Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was being released in 2004, Kal Penn told High Times that he didn't smoke pot or eat meat, which was rich with irony.

I remember the day Penn (a.ka. Kumar) came up to the High Times office well. I was editor of High Times Grow America - an offshoot of High Times - at the time. We were scheduled to interview and photograph Penn for a piece that would hype the movie.

Before heading to work that day, I visited my neighborhood White Castle. I asked for buns (no burgers), french-fry containers (hold the fries) and cups (no soda). They thought I was nuts. I swiped a plastic blue tray on my way out the door and raced to the office.

Penn was on time and arrived by himself. The art director had concocted what we called "bud burgers" and "weedy fries" for the shoot, using fresh green nugs, of course. Penn gladly posed with the tray full of loaded White Castle items for the camera.

"I tend to gravitate toward stoner movies because they constantly push the envelope of what you can do can't do," Penn said. "There's a lot of shock-value humor. Basically, you create this little world where you can do whatever you want as these characters. It's fun to watch and it's also fun to be the guy who gets to do that stuff and get paid."

Cut to the Stony Awards in 2005. Director Danny Lenier and Penn both showed up, hoping to win for Harold & Kumar (it did), which had become a cult stoner classic despite weak sales at the box office. When Penn arrived, he pulled me aside and confided that he was now smoking pot. It seemed to me he was embarrassed by the interview that pegged him as a non-stoner.

Penn went on to star with John Cho in the more successful sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

Last year, he became one of Barack Obama's celebrity supporters. But Penn was more serious than most. He saw this as an opportunity to make a move from Hollyweed to the White House.

So the Apr. 7, 2009 announcement that Penn has been named associate director of the Office of Public Affairs by the Obama team charted even higher on the irony meter. Could we count on Penn to urge the president to decriminalize marijuana? Or is he back in the pot closet?

"I don't smoke weed in real life," Penn now says in answer to that question, "so it's honestly not something I've given much thought to."

Either way, we know they're going to have fun watching Penn's stoner movies during downtime at the White House.

Photo by Brian Jahn

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