Chatter: Kumar Goes to Penn

He may have gotten famous as a stoner in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, but actor Kal Penn — most recently critically lauded in The Namesake — will be playing a very different role in January: U of Penn professor, teaching courses on teen cinema and Asian-Americans in film. He’s hardly the first boldface name to grace the local halls of academia: Fashion legend James Galanos taught a Drexel seminar last November, and author Lisa Scottoline teaches at Penn Law. Of course, neither really approaches Temple’s landing of Marilyn Manson to guest-lecture on artistic expression three years ago. Now there’s a class we bet nobody cut.