Super Bowl parties showcase flesh, flash

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -

Nick Lachey strolled right through the lobby, new girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo on his arm, an entourage of about a dozen in tow and a few paparazzi out front.

Terrell Owens, sporting a dark jacket and even darker glasses, smoothly made his way up a side stairway, a half-dozen bodyguards following him.

Kid Rock wound through the crowd in his usual derby-hat-and-ratty-tanktop attire and accompanied by his own guard, while

Pauly Shore passed along almost unnoticed.

This is Super Bowl weekend on South Beach, the ultimate party paradise, where flesh and flash are on display for all to see inside the clubs and outside on the beach.

Stretch limos — the 50-foot Hummer is this year's popular choice — struggled through traffic that never seemed to move as lines of people waited to pay $500 just to get in the door stand in front of nightclubs that have large-shouldered bouncers shaking their heads no even to groups of models.

With party hosts like

Jamie Foxx, Paris and Nicky Hilton, and the self-proclaimed king of South Beach, Shaquille O'Neal, you've got to be somebody or know somebody to have a shot at getting in during the Super Bowl.

The bash to be at was the Maxim party Friday. Scalpers paid up to $4,000 on the street for tickets and spectators stood 10 deep outside the Sagamore Hotel to get a glimpse of the red carpet, which was graced by the likes of

Spike Lee, K-Fed, Ludacris and top-name athletes including former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis, tennis star Andy Roddick and NFL standouts Reggie Bush, LaDainian Tomlinson and Donovan McNabb.

The celebrities and athletes rolled through the lobby every few minutes, some of them heading out back where people stood chest-to-chest among the hedges, others ushering off to private rooms — all with that you-know-my-name confidence.

Of course, everyone looked like they were someone, which is probably how they got in.

The guys came ready for action, breaking out their best striped button-ups and black jeans, moussing their hair up in 157 different directions and sporting big-rimmed, low-tint sunglasses that would make

Brad Pitt proud. The women moved in beautiful packs, wearing low-cut tops and high-rising skirts.

The music stopped at 2 a.m., but the action didn't, with countless revelers hanging out on the back deck or the red carpet, not wanting the night to ever end.

The Playboy party was the place to be the night before the game — with celebs like

Johnny Knoxville and

Alyssa Milano and the bunnies themselves among the hordes of beautiful people.

In the midst of all the hipness was a seemingly misplaced older group of revelers who clearly had plenty of money and seemingly nothing better to do.

This group included the cliche Florida retiree set with their multicolored golf shirts and saggy slacks, and the trying-way-too-hard-to-still-be-hip former CEOs with the blazers and mock turtlenecks. But with women dancing in giant boxes, swinging from the moon and soaking in a bathtub, they were easy to overlook.