PopConsumer

Kumar (No Harold) Goes To The White House

Actor Kal Penn is giving up his acting career (if you're a fan of House you probably know this by now) and heading to work in the Obama administration in a group headed by Valerie Jarrett which involves reaching out to the public and helping groups connect with the White House.

What a great job! Penn has an undergraduate degree in Sociology with a specialization in Theater, Film and Television from UCLA and is pursuing a master's in International Security from Stanford so he's not just a pretty face. Having had careers both in academia and entertainment myself, and having a social science undergrad from UCLA with most of the requirements for the Theater specialization (I could not complete it as it would have required more credits than you are allowed to take), and a masters in social science from a top university, (but no career as an actor or producer - just the proud distinction of having failed out of The Groundlings school) I am totally jealous.

As probably is a former neighbor of mine. He sent a note to our neighborhood Yahoo! group bidding us farewell, letting us know that he had put his belongings in storage, that he had set out to DC in hopes of networking his way into a job with the Obama administration and requesting any connections. Amazingly (like me) his resume has not surfaced from the sea of 300,000 or so that were submitted to the White House site:

And in case any of you have political connections which you would be willing to share (you never know!), I have a PhD in Astrophysics, was a NASA fellow, have 5 years’ experience in national economic development policy, and I speak French, German and Mandarin. 

Anyone with any ideas or connections, let me know and I'll pass them on to the rocket scientist who is inspired to serve his country!

Tip of the Day: Jane Velez-Mitchell

I'm going to try out a new feature here. A daily pointer to something I think is worth knowing about. I come across lots of great stuff every day and I want to share the good stuff. It might be a thought provoking article, a useful website, a product I've found to be indespensible, an incredible image, groovy places to visit or someone you should know. You can always check out my del.icio.us account (mrniles) down on the left sidebar or follow me on twitter or friendfeed (marianiles) or read my BlogHer blog to get a sense of stuff I'm finding but this series will serve as a spotlight.

I very much enjoyed this profile of HLN (from CNN and formerly known as Headline News) host Jane Velez-Mitchell. She seems like an interesting person whose life has lead them to some insights that have supported her success. And it gives hope to those of us past our teens and twenties that new frontiers and the best of our life and career can still be ahead of us. Here are some choice bits but I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Jane Velez-Mitchell is a true-crime author, a television talking head, a lesbian, an animal activist, a recovering alcoholic and a vegan. She was until recently a glorified freelancer for Headline News, the sister channel of CNN.

Now she is one of Headline News’s nightly hosts — and her 7 o’clock show is setting ratings records for the network....

After almost two decades in Los Angeles, chasing local news for its CBS affiliate and covering criminal trials for the syndicated show “Celebrity Justice,” Ms. Velez-Mitchell, 53, was content to fill in for Ms. Grace, promote her book about crimes and write a memoir.

In appearances on Ms. Grace’s show starting in 2005, she had been enticed to share opinions, a marked change from her years in local news where, she recalled, producers would tell her to “stick to the copy.”

Having made the leap from news to views, “I kind of sensed that I couldn’t go back” to local journalism, she said. “Which is O.K.: life’s an adventure, and you keep moving forward.”

Ms. Velez-Mitchell said she drew her one-day-at-a-time philosophy from the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. She will celebrate her 14th year of sobriety on April 1. “That’s really the main thing that informs how I look at the world,” she said. “I’m not in control of anything, so why bother trying to control it?”...

“It’s astounding how little you need to survive, it really is,” she said.

Gwen Ifill is a Rock Star!

So the proposed scenario here is that Gwen Ifill has secretly plotted to write a book about race and the political process, shockingly talk about Obama in it and then throw the VP debate, behave partisanly as she never has for decades, somehow single handedly take down Sarah Palin, the American people then for the first time in history vote based on the VP debate and nothing else, decide based on the heaping egg Ifill has slung on Palin's face to elect Obama and drive sales of a book that is not about revealing embarrassing personal details (the promise of which drove sales of both Clinton memoirs and is what earned them millions of dollars and Obama has already received a million dollars for spilling his own secrets) and that she will make a fortune from royalties not from an already paid advance?

I used to work in the music business.  The only artists who made the bulk (or any, frankly) money from sales royalties vs. advances were limited to multi-platinum sellers - less than 1 percent of all the recordings made and sold.  I'm guessing the book business isn't terribly different.  The book authors I know never made a cent beyond the advance.

I'm impressed that folks think that a black woman who hosts a 1/2 hour wonky news show on PBS is so awesomely powerful and that race and politics is the hot book subject of next year.  There might be hope for me getting a book deal and not starving yet!