It’s not just a game! There were plenty of thrills to be had on the field when the Baltimore Ravens took on the San Francisco 49ers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 3 — but the real Super Bowl action kicked off long before kickoff.
As the new issue of Us Weekly reveals, stars including Channing Tatum, Ashley Greene, Paul McCartney, and Jamie Foxx flocked to the Big Easy days in advance of the main event and spent the weekend partying on the scene — or, in a few cases, causing a scene. Check out some of the drama that went down.
McCartney boogied to Michael Jackson tunes at Rolling Stone‘s Feb. 1 bash at the Bud Light Hotel, along with Josh Hutcherson, Chace Crawford, Jeremy Renner, Sofia Vergara, and others. The crowd enjoyed performances by Pitbull and Flo Rida, with sets by DJ Samantha Ronson, until around 2 a.m.
Meanwhile, at the Leather & Laces kickoff bash, host Jenny McCarthy was in “full-on party mode,” says a source. “She was texting at 5:30 a.m. and wanted to keep going out!”
The next day, Feb. 2, DirecTV hosted stars including Nina Dobrev, Snoop Lion, and Lil Wayne at the Celebrity Beach Bowl. Emotions ran high during the VIP flag football game; at one point, Lil Wayne stormed out of the event after a cameraman hit him with a mic. “He demanded the man apologize,” an onlooker tells Us. “When the guy told him to relax, he lost it and told producers to ‘get the f–k out of my face!'”
Later that night, Erin Andrews, Michael Strahan, and Jeremy Piven enjoyed the Don Julio dinner at the Audi Forum, while Channing Tatum and Ashley Greene got in on the action at Tatum’s Bourbon Street bar, Saints & Sinners. Elsewhere in the Big Easy, Jamie Foxx was spotted “getting freaky” with three women at Maxim‘s pre-game bash, and Kate Upton danced on a couch to DJ Jesse Marco’s jams at GQ‘s Elms Mansion party.
Guys With Kids star Anthony Anderson hit the town, too. But when a fellow party-goer tried to sell him on another club by mentioning that 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan would be there, Anderson quipped, “That’s not going to help get me there!”
After the game, Beyonce — fresh off her super-fierce halftime performance with Destiny’s Child — toasted Baltimore’s victory with husband Jay-Z at a $2 million blowout at Mardi Gras World, where they enjoyed a show by pal Mary J. Blige.