Actor Kal Penn Calls Tweets Supporting Stop-and-Frisk a 'Mistake'

Also, he has a new show to promote

After some time away, Kal Penn is looking to make you laugh again.

The actor, who rose to fame on the back of the "Harold and Kumar" stoner comedies, is on TV with "We Are Men," a sitcom launching tonight on CBS. The material's more mature than his spin as Kumar, though not exactly staid; Penn and his three friends, living in a sort of singles' community after breakups, go out drinking and hitting on women. It's a long way to go for a former Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement — the job for which Penn quit his steady gig on the medical drama "House."

Penn's is an unusual balancing act, and one that seems to be undertaken without excessive forethought; the actor left the White House to film the third "Harold and Kumar" film, then returned. It also would seem to paint all his actions afterwards in a political light: there's the issue of his tweets in support of New York's "stop and frisk" policy targeted at black men.