'Eastbound & Down' premiere: Danny McBride, Will Ferrell step up to the plate for a second season

OK, dream machine. That "Bienvenidos a Mexico" sign on the lawn at Paramount Studios didn't fool anyone. We knew it was really just a place to scarf down yummy tacos and quesadillas after taking in Thursday's second-season premiere of HBO's "Eastbound & Down," which finds burned-out ballplayer Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) moving to cock-fightin' Mexico.

Well, supposedly, anyway. Even the Mexico you see onscreen isn't really Mexico.

"We filmed in Puerto Rico. We fooled you, right? You thought it was Mexico," McBride said accurately as he ambled through the fiesta, parting seas of well-wishers.

"There's stuff happening in Mexico, so HBO didn't think it would be safe. We really wanted to shoot down there, but the powers that be didn't want us to so we went to Puerto Rico. But it ...

... ended up being great. We had a good time down there."

As the real Mexico toasted its bicentennial this week, party guests posed for pictures with a donkey wearing a sombrero, and "Eastbound" cast members Michael Pena, Steve Little, Ana de la Reguera, Craig Robinson, Deep Roy and Efren Ramirez celebrated the series' own second chance at bat. Comedy mafia members-in-good standing Seth Rogen and Adam Scott of "Parks and Recreation" were also there to cheer them on. Will Ferrell, an executive producer and occasional cast member, came to rally the troops, but he'd just flown in from the real Europe, so he jetted off soon after the party started.

You'd expect funny to attract funny, but raunchy comedies can also make strange bedfellows. The premiere brought out big "Eastbound" fans Marilyn Manson and Don Johnson, whose names you will probably never again see together in the same sentence. (Click the pic of McBride and the donkey, above, to launch a photo gallery of red carpet arrivals.)

McBride certainly looked more relaxed -- and better groomed -- than he did in the first episodes, in which he sported long curly tendrils (mimicked on ball caps with fake hair fringe that awaited guests on theater seats) woven into tight cornrows.

When someone remarked that wearing those braids must have been painful, the comedian just smiled and said, "More than you know."

-- Irene Lacher

Top photo: "Eastbound" star Danny McBride, left, and executive producer Will Ferrell trade man hugs at the second-season premiere. Credit: Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic

Second photo: McBride and guest at the event Thursday in Los Angeles. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

Third photo: Marilyn Manson. Who knew? Credit: Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic