Super Bowl parties
HOUSTON put on its party dress for Super Bowl week.
At Club Nomadic, pop-music fans dressed to the nines to see soldout performances by Sam Hunt and the Chainsmokers late, late Thursday. The 9,000-seat venue with dance floors on three levels was packed with beautiful people.
Chester Pitts, Brian and Megan Cushing, 2 Chainz and Ja Rule were spotted in the ultra-exclusive second-level lounge, where VIPs and athletes sipped champagne and sampled hors d’ouevres.
In River Oaks, at the home of Dr.
Quang and Staci
Henderson, it looked like a scene from a James Bond film, complete with gold-painted models ushering guests onto the red carpet. The “Casino Royale” set served as the backdrop for the Bulls & Blackjack Celebrity Poker Tournament and Casino Night. The event was a fundraiser for the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, along with the Wade Smith Foundation and Whitney Mercilus’ With Merci organization.
Actor Adrian Grenier of “Entourage” fame was the party’s special guest, looking cool and dapper in a slim-cut suit with a pair of old-school Adidas sneakers. He said he couldn’t wait to try some of Houston’s Tex-Mex food.
“I’m a big supporter of all sorts of charities,” he said. “I like to support causes that are fundamental, that are at the root of a lot of other things. Literacy — having the skills and the tools to be able to comprehend, understand and learn for yourself — is probably the deepest of all roots.”
The party’s local celeb hosts included Wade and Rita Smith,
Neal and Maria Bush, Chris and Jennifer Myers, Kevin and Caroline Walter, Stan and Amanda Abiassi, Neera Patidar, Jon and Amanda Weeks, and Lane and Chita Craft, whose first child is due very soon. Players’ wives were the focus of a fashion show Friday morning at Tootsie’s, benefiting Covenant House. Montina Cooper, a member of Beyoncé’s backup singing group, The Mamas, sang the national anthem with more than 500 guests in attendance. Alyssa Milano, sporting braids, made an appearance. One of the most star-studded places to be in Houston on Friday morning was the SiriusXM area at Radio Row in the George R. Brown Convention Center. A handful of the satellite service’s show hosts — Jenny McCarthy (joined by husband Donnie Wahlberg), Sway, Maria Menounos, Gary Dell’Abate
and Jon Hein from “The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show” — were holding court.
Luminaries making the rounds included New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, Tim Tebow, Paul Wahlberg, Brooklyn Decker and Harry Connick Jr. Craig Ferguson was on hand to promote his upcoming formatfree SiriusXM show.