Britney Barely Avoids Meltdown

As Britney Spears drove aimlessly around the streets of Los Angeles Tuesday night following her shopping spree to find the perfect crystal chandelier, sources tell OK! that the thought occurred to her to make a surprise appearance at one of the evening's big-ticket A-list events: The Maxim magazine-hosted launch party for the new Ubisoft video game Assassin's Creed at Opera nightclub.

But the pop star never made the star-filled party, which included Heroes star Kristen Bell and The Hills' Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge. So what kept her from going in?

According to a pal of the pop star, despite the fact that she wasn't on the invite list, "Brit started saying that Maxim had always been so good to her in the past and she didn't want to miss anything fun." Well, that's when she was informed that not only had she not made the cut of the magazine's most recent "Hot 100" list, the new issue of Maxim actually labeled, along with Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Sandra Oh and Sarah Jessica Parker, one the five most "unsexy" women on the planet.

As one can imagine, Brit didn't take this news well. "She started to pout and her eyes were filling up with tears. She had no idea there was such a thing as an Unsexy list and it came as a pretty big shock."

So why give the pop tart the bad news at all? "We didn't want her to get inside Opera and have people coming up to her or telling her she was a part of that list," explains the friend. "It would have been really bad if she had had a breakdown inside the club in front of everyone and she wanted to go out and have a good time and forget all the drama at home."

In the end, the pop star barely slowed her car down as she drove past the club, instead heading to Mirabelle restaurant in West Hollywood with pal Sam Lutfi.

Says the friend, "Brit's been talking about demanding an apology from Maxim."

Best of luck with that!