July 7, 2008

When the going gets tough, the tough get praying. On Saturday, Madonna tried to find some peace from swirling reports linking her to New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez by heading to the Kabbalah Centre in New York. But she didn't seek enlightenment alone: Joining her at the service were husband Guy Ritchie and kids Lourdes, 11, Rocco, 7 and David, 2.

Madonna introduces son David to baseball as they brave the rain at Yankee Stadium on June 22.

The next day, the Big M issued a statement defending her marriage -- and denying she's involved with A-Rod, whose wife, Cynthia, filed divorce papers on Monday in which she alleged "extramarital affairs" and emotional abandonment (Madonna is not mentioned in the petition).

"My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce," Madonna carefully declared to People. "I know Alex Rodriguez through Guy Oseary, who manages both of us. I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study."

But her proclamation has done little to quell speculation about her rumor-plagued union to Ritchie or her involvement with Rodriguez, who has supposedly become enthralled by Kabbalah.

"Alex, God bless him, is lost," Dodd Romero, Rodriguez's former trainer and the godfather to his two daughters with Cynthia, opines to the New York Post. "I think he got pulled in by the dark side, if you can say that nicely. He's totally brainwashed ... [Cynthia] believes that is what ruined the marriage."

Insiders echo that claim to the New York Daily News, saying Cynthia, who spent last week holed up at the palatial Paris pad of pal Lenny Kravitz, told them Alex became "beguiled" by Madonna after she apparently introduced him to the red string-embellished religion.

"I feel like Madonna is using mind control over him," a pal quotes Cynthia as saying. "I don't recognize the man he's become. He was a sweet, beautiful, loving husband and father. Today, he's very cold and calculating."

Calculating is also how some are describing the latest death knell to sound for Madonna's marriage to Ritchie.

Sources posit to TMZ that the divorce headlines are part of a long-term "PR strategy" designed to boost interest in Madonna's soon-to-launch Sticky & Sweet tour, and she and Guy will wait to announce their parting of ways until the tour wraps in November.

The spies claim the Ritchies' nearly eight-year union is "effectively" kaput but that they remain friends and want to fill their coffers for the kids' sake -- TMZ estimates the tour could bring in nearly $300 million -- before splitting up.

"She is simply playing the media -- and the public -- as usual," says a source.

As they were: Cynthia and A-Rod attend a GQ soiree in '07.

Cynthia, for her part, is also playing with the media, courtesy of her lawyer, Earle Lilly, who fired off the first salvo in the divorce battle by cliché-ing to Us that the Madonna whispers were "the straw that broke the camel's back."

"She's been fighting these terrible, demonic problems for two years and they don't go away," rails Lilly to the mag, seemingly referring to reported sightings of A-Rod with a stripper last year.

He says Cynthia, who gave birth to daughter Ella two months ago, has her suspicions about the baseballer's purported visits to Madonna's Manhattan apartment, but he stops short of accusing them of hanky-panky.

"The correct analysis is a relationship," he expounds to People. "Some people categorize an affair as something as sexual infidelity. We're not claiming that. It's an affair of the heart."

Meanwhile, in between the marital and A-Rod drama, Madonna is also dealing with her beans-spilling, seemingly money- and attention-seeking brother Christopher Ciccone's forthcoming book, "Life with My Sister Madonna."

Fortunately, if a newly leaked tale from the oh-so-cleverly titled tome is any indication, it looks to be light on bombshells.

The story, as relayed by the London Sun, recounts how the Popeye-bicep-sporting pop icon once puckered up for a New Year's Eve kiss with a "surprised" Gwyneth Paltrow at a fete thrown by Donatella Versace.

The pals were evidently boogying down in the wee hours when Madonna "grabbed" Mrs. Chris Martin and smooched her "full on the mouth," which is pretty much how we figured she regularly greets and bids goodbye to all her friends.

Speaking of blondes Madonna has swapped spit with, Britney Spears won't be joining her Sticky & Sweet tour, despite reports to the contrary.

An insider insists to E! News that the reteaming rumblings are "wrong," but says there's a possibility the still-recovering Brit could make an appearance.

"She is considering doing a video piece for Madonna's tour," explains the source, who says the proposed snippet would be shown on mega-screens onstage.

And finally, whatever rumors or revelations surface in the coming months, whether romantic, religious or otherwise, Madonna will probably be able to brush them off.

"I have learned over the years not to take accusations and the many false reports about me very seriously," she said in her statement to People. "I also appreciate how fiction and fact seem to be perceived as one and the same by people who read both newspapers and the Internet."

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