Keck's Exclusives: Latin Beauty Spices Up Pains and Eastbound

Royal Pains goes Cuban for a two-parter kicking off Thursday (June 24, 10/9c, USA), with special guest stars Tony Plana (Ugly Betty) and Mexican sensation Ana de la Reguera (Cop Out), who will also be seen as Danny McBride's season-long love interest on HBO's returning Eastbound & Down.
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The Royal Pains action begins with Hank (Mark Feuerstein) heading to a Cuban hacienda, where Boris (Campbell Scott) is ailing. There, he meets a sexy bartender named Carmen. "I'm Hank's love interest for these two episodes," says Ana, who shot her scenes in Puerto Rico last April. Carmen's uncle (Plano) has faked his death and is writing an underground political blog criticizing the government. When he is injured in an accident, Carmen recruits Dr. Hank. "We can't go to the hospital because he's supposed to be dead."
Ana says she played tennis everyday with Mark and Tony, "and I beat all of them. I was the queen of tennis." She also got to pucker up on screen with Mark. "We shot the kiss on our first day, which I prefer," says Ana, calling from the New Mexico set of the big-budget film Cowboys and Aliens (she plays Sam Rockwell's wife). "It's better to do it at the beginning. After a few weeks when you become friends, kissing gets trickier. Weird."
Ana will have a much longer run on Eastbound & Down, which also filmed its new season (premiering September 26) in Puerto Rico (this time subbing for Mexico). "I play Vida," says Ana, who will appear in all seven episodes. "She's a singer who sings Bob Seger covers in Spanish. You'll be able to hear me on the soundtrack."
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