Celebrity Mound

While speaking to PEOPLE about his latest charitable efforts, Yankees star Alex Rodriguez commented for the first time on his relationship with Madonna.

“We’re friends,” Rodriguez, 33, says.

Asked if there is any romance between them at all, Rodriguez reiterates, “We’re friends – that’s it.”

While rumors have swirled that the slugger and the singer, 50, have been carrying on a romantic relationship and flying around the country in order to spend time together, “I can tell you this,” Rodriguez says, “I have never been on a plane with her.”

He also finds much of what’s been written about them laughable: “I’ve been to two [of her] concerts, yet I’ve read that I went to 20. I’ve also read that we were buying an apartment together. That is absolutely ridiculous and not true.”

“You have to have a sense of humor when it comes to this stuff,” Rodriguez adds.

When pressed on how much time they have spent together, and whether he had ever stayed the night at Madonna’s home, Rodriguez laughed: “If I answered every rumor we’d be here for three weeks.”

(A source close to Rodriguez tells PEOPLE that reports of his spending the night with Madonna are “completely, unequivocably false.”)

Focused on Charity
While Rodriguez and Madonna were both in Mexico City last weekend, Rodriguez says his time was focused on running a baseball clinic for kids.

“When you’re among 200 kids and teaching the game of baseball it gives you an amazing feeling,” he says, “just that you may inspire kids to reach their goals, whether it’s baseball or whatever their goals might be.”

The desire to help children is something he and Madonna have in common – and one reason he has become a supporter of Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity.

“I initially knew nothing about her charity,” Rodriguez says. But after being invited to one of Madonna’s fundraisers, he found that “we shared a lot of the same commitments toward helping children. I was very moved by the whole thing. I saw the documentary and it was very inspiring and informative. I saw an opportunity to help and I jumped at that.”

Rodriguez jumped into three other philanthropic efforts on his own recently as well: He’s funding the completion of a Pediatric Outpatient Unit at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York City; funding a Community DentCare Network at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (to provide preventative dental services for kids); and completing a new learning center at the Boys and Girls Club in Miami that A-Rod himself frequented as a child.

“If it wasn’t for the Boys and Girls Club, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Rodriguez says. “So I feel a great responsibility to not only give money, but to be there, and to be seen by the kids. I still hang out at the Boys and Girls Club.”

Dealing With His Divorce
Rodriguez, who amicably settled his divorce with wife Cynthia, 35, in September, also addressed rumors that he and Cynthia had been arguing.

“I have a wonderful relationship with Cynthia,” says Rodriguez, who shared Thanksgiving dinner with his ex and their two children, Natasha, 4, and Ella, 7 months, last week. “We try to be the best parents we can.”

As for the amount of time he spends with his children, “I see my children, honestly, seven days a week, which has been great. We both have a lot of respect for each other and she’s a great lady.”

As for Madonna: “I have a lot of respect for her,” he says. “She’s very committed to making the world a better place. She’s had an amazing career, and we’re friends. That’s it.”

(source)

Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez pulled double-duty in Miami Thursday, visiting his soon-to-be ex-wife and kids for Thanksgiving dinner and then rushing to be with gal pal Madonna at her house nearby.

Rodriguez began his day with brunch with Madge’s manager, Guy Oseary, before moving on to wife Cynthia’s house, where he spent some quality daddy time with daughters, Natasha, 4, and 7-month-old Ella.

The third baseman hopped into his black Porsche around 4p.m. and sped off to Star Island – where Madonna has a home.

Sources say he is staying there while he’s in town, and witnesses saw his car parked there overnight.

On Wednesday night, Rodriguez was front and center at Madonna’s concert at Dolphin Stadium, the Daily News reported Thursday.

Later, the kabbalah cronies celebrated at the estate of Jeff Soffer, the bachelor billionaire who reportedly has come between Gwyneth Paltrow and rocker hubby Chris Martin.

Feeding speculation that Paltrow and Martin are ready to split, Paltrow has been staying at Soffer’s Indian Creek Island mansion and spent Thanksgiving with him, sources said.

Martin’s band, Coldplay, wrapped its U.S. tour Wednesday night and friends expected Paltrow, who’d been at their London home with their children earlier this week, would remain there to welcome Martin back after weeks on the road.

Instead, sources said, she returned to Miami, where she and Soffer sparked gossip two weeks ago when she showed up at at the opening of his Fontainebleau Hotel.

“Gwyneth has confided to friends she and Chris are taking a break,” a source claimed. “Jeff is crazy about her.”

Reps for Paltrow, Martin, and Soffer did not respond to e-mails Thursday.

On Monday, her spokesman, Stephen Huvane, called revived rumors of marriage trouble “rubbish … stemming from the fact that she will not make any public appearances with her husband.”

“We’re just friends,” Soffer told The News earlier this week. “Ms. Paltrow has a very sound marriage to Chris Martin.”

(source)

The Yankee slugger, who ditched his wife of six years, Cynthia, after becoming besotted with Madonna, is a “soul-less” man who is “abandoning” his kids on Thanksgiving for his lover, according to what Cynthia is telling friends.

“Access Hollywood” reports that Cynthia, who’s in the final stages of her divorce from A-Rod, wrote an e-mail to a confidant noting: “My 6-foot-3, 220-pound soul-less, soon-to-be ex-husband is abandoning his kids on Thanksgiving to be with Madonna . . . She called and he ran on her command back to New York City . . . Gross!”

Instead of ushering in the holidays in Miami with his children, Natasha, 4, and Ella, 1 – A-Rod, 33, is hosting a dinner at his Manhattan apartment for Madonna, 50, and her kids, Lourdes, Rocco and David, and manager Guy Oseary.

The friend of Cynthia said A-Rod’s furious ex described Madonna in “not so nice terms” in the e-mail.

To add insult to injury, after Rodriguez left Miami at Madonna’s beck and call, his lawyer called Cynthia and wanted her to sign the couple’s divorce settlement.

When Cynthia filed for divorce last summer, she cited irreconcilable differences and claimed her husband had an “affair of the heart” with Madonna. The sinewy pop siren claimed at the time she was still “happily married” to Guy Ritchie, but two months later she and Ritchie filed for divorce. Since then, Madonna and A-Rod have been inseparable.

An insider told Page Six, “Alex likes a woman with a strong hand. He likes to be told what to do. He’s a bit of a cipher.”

A rep for A-Rod declined to comment.

(source)

Sources say Madonna’s relationship with Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez was going on a lot earlier than previously thought.

I’ve told you about A-Rod’s multi million dollar ‘love shack’ in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s condos over on Columbus Avenue. A-Rod, according to sources, moved in around the middle of March, right before baseball season began.

There’s no question, according to insiders, that Madonna has been a steady presence at the apartment ever since then. She sort of came with the package. According to sources, Rodriguez rented the apartment without ever speaking of his wife, Cynthia. She would have been around seven months pregnant at the time.

The apartment on Columbus Circle would have kept him just five blocks from Madonna’s home base on Central Park West.

Now comes word that Rodriguez is moving out of the sublet on November 1st, and heading possibly three blocks north to the new building known as 15 Central Park West. The former site of the beloved Mayflower Hotel is now Manhattan’s most expensive apartment building, home to dozens of mega-stars and millionaires. It’s just two blocks away from Madonna.

Madonna had better watch out, though. My sources say that the now single Rodriguez is busy meeting ladies “all over the place” – perhaps his own age, or younger, maybe even sans plastic surgery. All his friendship with Madonna may have done is pry him loose of his family so he’s free to roam. On the bright side, little David Banda can get autographs to send back to Malawi.

(source)