Kal Penn Takes A Dig At Clint Eastwood At DNC

by UInterviewSeptember 5, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

Speaking at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, Kal Penn of the Harold & Kumar franchise couldn’t resist the opportunity to make fun of Clint Eastwood’s “invisible chair” rant at the Republican National Convention last week when Eastwood, 82, turned to an empty chair on his left, pretending it was President Barack Obama, and debated with the “president” seated next to him. Penn, 35, used to work in the Obama Administration as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.

“I’ve worked on a lot of fun movies," Penn said at the DNC, "But my favorite job was having a boss who gave the order to take out Bin Laden and who's cool with all of us getting gay married. So thank you, invisible man in the chair, for that.”

Penn followed up his joke with more serious remarks in support of Obama. “And [thank you] for giving my friends access to affordable health insurance and doubling funding for the Pell Grant."

Penn asked Twitter followers to use the hashtag #sexyface when citing his speech. And while #sexyface did not become a highly trending topic among celebrities, Penn did receive a shout out from @InvisibleObama, the mock Twitter account created for the empty chair that Eastwood spoke to last week. @InvisibleObama now has over 69,000 followers.

@InvisibleObama

“Huge thanks to @KalPenn for the mention at #DNC2012! Go buy A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas in 3D on DVD now! #whatsaDVD?”

Penn also asked people to visit commit.barackobama.com, a website that allows people to see if they are registered to vote.

For the record, in light of the recent Eastwood debacle, President Obama has remained calm about the matter and even went so far as to praise Eastwood.

“I’m a huge Clint Eastwood fan. He is a great actor, and an even better director. I think the last few movies that he's made have been terrific," Obama told USA Today.

For those tuning into the DNC tonight, keep an eye out for the end of the 10 p.m. time slot when former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak. On Thursday the DNC will move to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, where President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will accept their Democratic nominations for President and Vice President. —Hal Sundt