It was ramping up to be a mudslinging media circus of legendary proportion: the star athlete who may or may not have been messing around with an international pop star; the long-suffering wife who had just given birth; the nasty statements coming out of either camp. It would have made the Christie Brinkley divorce look like a cakewalk. But now, Alex Rodriguez and estranged wife Cynthia have pulled back the reigns on their potentially messy divorce and settled the matter quietly.

Yankee superstar A-Rod and his long-suffering wife slugged it out quickly and quietly - and now have reached a settlement to end their troubled marriage, a source told The Post last night.

“They reached a settlement agreement,” said the source close to Alex Rodriguez. “It was very amicable.”

The terms were not immediately disclosed.

As The Post reported, Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez - with whom he has two daughters, Natasha, 3, and Ella, 5 months - started negotiations in New York soon after she filed for divorce in July.

Cynthia, who lives in Florida, was spotted several times out in the Big Apple this week, suggesting she may have come here to finalize the deal.

The breakup had triggered a flurry of embarrassing revelations, including A-Rod’s alleged schoolboy crush on Madonna - he reportedly gushed to a friend that the pop diva was his “f- - -ing soulmate, dude” - and Cynthia’s dash to Paris to cry on rocker pal Lenny Kravitz’s shoulder.

The Bronx Bomber supposedly paid late-night visits to Madonna - and was, according to a family friend, “brainwashed” by her. Madonna denied having an affair with the slugger, insisting her own marriage to British director Guy Ritchie was solid.

The pact is now expected to be finalized in court in Florida, where C-Rod had filed for divorce, accusing A-Rod of “extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct.”

A-Rod slipped out of Yankee Stadium after last night’s Bomber victory without commenting.

[From NY Daily News]

Well, as much as I would have loved hearing all the juicy details about A-Rod’s “extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct,” they did the right thing by ending this quickly and quietly. They have two little girls to co-parent, and A-Rod’s career doesn’t need anymore negative publicity right now. He just tied Lou Gehrig’s record for the most hits in Yankees Stadium, while his teammate Derek Jeter has broken that record - that should get him back into the good graces of sports fans.

Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez are shown promoting his children’s book ‘Out of the Ballpark’ at FAO Schwarz on 7/20/07. Credit: PNP/WENN

NY Yankee All-Star and alleged Madonna-lover Alex Rodriguez (whom we refer to up here in the Boston area as “A-Fraud”) is not going to give his soon-to-be ex-wife, Cynthia, any more of his millions than she’s entitled to in the prenuptial agreement she signed. A-Rod’s lawyers are also looking to have any accusations of his infidelities removed from the record- though they’re careful to avoid actually denying the allegations.

Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez is playing hardball against his wife in their divorce case, saying he wants their prenuptial agreement enforced and charges that he cheated on her removed from the record.

In court papers obtained exclusively by the Daily News, A-Rod’s side responds point by point to Cynthia’s July 7 divorce filing.

The All-Star admits the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” but says that because Florida is a no-fault divorce state, he doesn’t have to say why and he’s not going to.

Cynthia’s allegations that he “emotionally abandoned his wife and children” and that the pair broke up because of his “extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct” are “immaterial and impertinent and should be stricken,” the papers say.

The documents are expected to be filed today in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in Florida. In her petition to the court, Cynthia asked for the couple’s $12 million waterfront estate and “equitable distribution” of all assets acquired during the marriage.

While naming no figure, she petitioned for alimony and child support, including such benefits as life and health insurance and private schools - suggesting she be able to maintain the “high standard of living” A-Rod has provided his family so far.

Rodriguez, whose 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yankees makes him baseball’s highest-paid player, says several times in the response he wants the prenup enforced.

“Husband denies any duty to support wife beyond those obligations specifically set out in the parties’ prenuptial agreement,” the papers say. What those terms are wasn’t immediately known, but apparently they don’t suit Cynthia.

If he has to go to court to fight her challenge to the prenup and wins, he says he’s entitled to recover from his wife any “reasonable attorney’s fees and costs” he incurs. A-Rod strikes a conciliatory note when it comes to the children, saying he “has been paying, and will continue to pay … reasonable and bona fide expenses” for daughters Natasha, 3, and Ella, 3 months.

[From NY Daily News]

Cynthia may have shot herself in the foot by marring A-Rod in the state of Florida. According to state law, prenups are generally enforceable unless the disputing party can prove that the agreement was signed under duress, there was fraud involved, the terms were “unreasonable,” (meaning that one person keeps all the assets while the other gets nothing), or that one of the parties wasn’t fully aware of the other’s assets at the time. Of course, Cynthia could take the high road in this whole mess, and not go after A-Rod’s millions- that is an option. But her actions since the split, including using his credit cards to fund a first-class trip to Paris before filing for divorce, tells me she is pissed, and wants to hit him where it hurts. So it looks like no one is going to be the bigger person here.

Cynthia and Alex Rodriguez are shown on 12/30/07. Credit: ROC/Fame Pictures

Alex Rodriguez must bribe his friends with a lot of cash or favors, because they are constantly doing his bidding. They’re like cheap, half-assed PR reps. By most accounts it was A-Rod’s friends who started the rumor that soon-to-be ex-wife Cynthia was having an affair with Lenny Kravitz after Alex suggested she spend some time in Paris at Kravitz’s pad.

Now they’re saying Cynthia is responsible for the end of the marriage, and each friend has a different reason: she kept him “caged” (I think by that they mean married); “got into his head;” and alternately wouldn’t give him a divorce but told him he could have affairs.

While soon-to-be-divorced Alex Rodriguez is still in the hot seat thanks to his mysterious Madonna meetings and the various adultery allegations that swirl around him, A-Rod’s friends say he’s the injured party. According to various sources who spoke to the New York Daily News, Alex’s wife, Cynthia, emotionally manipulated the third baseman and refused to let him out of their troubled marriage.

One friend described Alex as psychologically vulnerable, and said Cynthia “got into his head.” As for claims that Alex put Cynthia through a lot, too, with the alleged extramarital relations, sources defended him, rather than denying the affairs. “When you keep a man caged, he’s going to go crazy when you let him out,” an insider explained.

Another source stated that Alex wanted a divorce, but rather than agreeing to it, Cynthia told her husband he had her permission to pursue other women. “He said, ‘I hate this. I want out,’ but she kept insisting they could work it out,” the source told the paper. “After about six months of him asking for a divorce, she said it was okay for him to see other people, but she wouldn’t agree to a separation.” The friend failed to explain Cynthia’s later change of heart.

[From MSNBC’s The Scoop]

I love the “When you keep a man caged, he’s going to go crazy when you let him out,” line. Exactly what the hell does that mean? Did Cynthia Rodriguez have some giant, serial killer-esq cage specially constructed for the basement where she kept A-Rod whenever he came home? If so, I can understand how he’d go hog wild whenever he got out. Otherwise, what I suspect this “friend” is referring to is a closed marriage. I.e. no having sex with other women, probably no strip clubs, and probably no porn if she could stop it. Sounds like a lot of marriages. If you’re not into that, that’s fine. That’s a great reason not to get married.

I’m surprised A-Rod has thought it so beneficial to smear his wife and try to blame her for all of this. What ego. It seems like most celebrities are smart enough to heed the advice of a good PR rep and take responsibility, act like they feel a ton of remorse, and then battle it out in court. Rodriguez has found it much more important to try to make his wife look bad and like she forced him into Madonna’s arms. And I’ve got to say, if he’s looking for arms like that, then he’s probably just looking for a dude.

Here’s Alex Rodriguez hosting an MLB All Star party at the 40/40 Club in New York City on July 14th. Photographer: L. Gallo. Header photo of Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez on December 30th. Images thanks to WENN.

As one jilted spouse to another, Christie Brinkley has some advice for Cynthia Rodriguez: hire one hell of a good attorney. Brinkley’s lawyers have been smearing ex-husband Peter Cook for the better part of a week; and some crazy salacious details have leaked out. Like his $3000 a month porn habit, the ridiculously terrible way he treated his children, and that he’d slept with over 35 women in his life. Brinkley is obviously spitting mad, and there’s a heated debate over who the bad guy really is: Cook for being a world class cheater, or Brinkley for dragging him through the mud – in front of their children. I still think he sounds like total scum.

Christie Brinkley’s tip for the Alex Rodriguez’s estranged wife Cynthia? “I think that the best advice I could give Ms. Rodriguez is to hire [my lawyer] Bob Cohen,” Brinkley, 54, told New York’s Daily News Tuesday after another contentious day in court with ex Peter Cook.

On the fourth day of their divorce trial, a court-appointed psychologist said both Brinkley and Cook, 49, need professional help. Dr. Stephen Herman called Cook a narcissist who “needs constant reassurance that he is a terrific guy.” (He also said Brinkley deserves full custody because Cook’s unrealistic expectations could “cause great harm” to their children, Jack, 13, and Sailor, 10.) Brinkley — who’s been wed four times — “needs to start working on deeper issues,” including “her choice of male figures,” Herman said.

The day wasn’t complete without a little mudslinging. Brinkley testified that she would have never married Cook if she knew the details about his 1982 drug arrest. She said he told her — a week before they wed — that the arrest happened in New York City. But Brinkley told the court it took place “in a gay truck stop.” (Cook laughed at that claim.)

Cook’s lawyer, Norman Sheresky, accused Brinkley of seeking to “publicly flog” her ex, as Brinkley fought to make the trial public. “Absolutely not,” Brinkley replied. “I didn’t want this trial. It’s humiliating for all of us. … I really, really wanted to settle this.”

[From Us Weekly]

Brinkley, by most accounts, was pretty much a supermom. It really shows that you can put your entire heart and soul into a family and a marriage, but if your partner is a louse, it won’t amount to much. It’s pretty sad for everyone involved. And it sounds like Cynthia Rodriguez is certainly in a similar mindset. She spent over $100,000 of A-Rod’s money before filing for divorce.

Here’s Christie Brinkley with her lawyer Robert Cohen and Peter Cook yesterday on Long Island. Images thanks to Splash.

Love is such a fickle thing. So is sexual preference. Apparently a guy like Alex Rodriguez can fall in love with – and marry – a woman like Cynthia Rodriguez, then turn around and fall in love with Madonna and her Hulk muscles. Clearly the guy doesn’t have a really specific “type.”

Us has an exclusive from a friend of A-Rod’s who says the baseball player told him he was in love with Madonna over dinner six months ago. Which isn’t really a surprise – the notion that the two had just recently met was clearly bullshit.

Just met? Hardly. New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez was smitten with Madonna six months ago when he was exchanging text messages with her while dining with a friend in Miami. “He kept smiling, acting as if he was a little kid,” the dinner companion tells Us Weekly in its latest issue, on newsstands now. “He told me it was Madonna,” A-Rod’s friend says. “I was shocked.”

The highest-paid player in baseball then “proceeded to say he was in love with her,” the pal tells Us. “I thought he was kidding, but he wasn’t.” By February, the 32-year-old slugger had upped the ante. “He said, ‘She’s my f–king soulmate, dude,’” the friend tells Us.

So was it an affair? “Without talking about specifics of sexual conduct, there’s no question,” her attorney, Earle Lilly, tells Us. “No one very often has pictures of the actual sex itself.” While Madonna, 49 – who put on a show of unity with husband Guy Ritchie last week – has denied a relationship with A-Rod, Us Weekly reports all signs say otherwise.

[From Us Weekly]

“‘My fucking soulmate, dude.’” What a romantic statement. Really, the poetic eloquence of A-Rod’s statement would make any woman leave her husband of seven years. I got goose bumps just reading it. Normally that only happens when I read Rumi or Yeats, but that A-Rod really has a way with words.

This is going to be one hell of an ugly divorce. Cynthia Rodriguez seems to be fighting mad – and she seems to have pretty much everyone agreeing with her.

Here’s Alex Rodriguez leaving his midtown apartment as he signs a few autographs for fans today. I mages thanks to Splash. Header with Madonna arriving at the Kabbalah center with Guy Ritchie and their children after getting caught in the rain in New York on Saturday. Photographer: Anthony Dixon. Images thanks to WENN.

The Madonna/A-Rod spiritual cheating and subsequent A-Rod divorce story keeps getting more interesting. Yesterday we heard that Cynthia Rodriguez went on a wild spending spree in Paris after the news broke of her estranged husband’s alleged affair with Madonna. Rodriguez is said to have blown six figures on a lavish first class vacation for herself, two friends and their daughter at a time when she was rumored to have been on a getaway with musician Lenny Kravitz. It turns out she did spend time with Kravitz and friends in Paris during his tour stop there, but the two are not romantically involved. She spent more time getting spa treatments, going to the best restaurants, and generally letting off steam.

The NY Post reports that Kravitz had just dumped his manager, Guy Oseary, after learning of the way that Oseary used a maybe purely cult-driven relationship to generate publicity through a fake cheating story. In retaliation for being fired by Kravitz, Oseary is said to have leaked the story that A-Rod’s wife Cynthia had jetted off to Paris to be with him:

Dodd Romero, the hulking fitness trainer who accompanied Cynthia to Paris, told The Post that Kravitz blames his former manager, Guy Oseary, for entangling the rocker in the twisted tales about Madonna and the Yankee slugger.

Romero called Kravitz two weeks ago to tip him off that Oseary - who managed Kravitz, Madonna and A-Rod - was about to “pimp out Madonna and A-Rod,” said a source. But Kravitz didn’t approve and told Romero, “I’ll take care of this” - and fired Oseary.

Kravitz was shocked when he was then accused of having a fling with the slugger’s wife, said the source. Romero believes Oseary planted the story in retaliation for being dumped.

Kravitz, Cynthia Rodriguez and Romero were all in Kravitz’s tour bus when the reports broke in Paris. “Lenny looked like he was going to throw up,” Romero told the Post. “Lenny said, ‘I worked so hard to clean up my image and now I’m gonna get dragged into this.’ ”

The trio planned to fly to Spain to meet up with Denzel Washington, whom Romero also trains, but canceled when Kravitz’s alleged tryst made news. The group agreed it was best for Cynthia to instead head back to Miami to “sort out the mess.”

A rep for Kravitz confirmed he dumped Oseary two weeks ago.

[From The NY Post]

The Post’s source, Dodd Romero, is the same trainer who said earlier in the week that A-Rod was “totally brainwashed” by Madonna and that “he got pulled in by the dark side.”

Speaking of the “dark side,” Rodriguez was photographed having lunch yesterday with Rabbi Michael Berg, the director of the Kabbalah Centre. If A-Rod thinks his wife is trying to take him to the cleaners he should wait and see how much cash he ends up giving that organization for whatever enlightenment they’re going to bestow on him. It doesn’t sound like his involvement in the cult has benefitted his career or personal life so far.

Here’s Lenny Kravitz on the set of his Levi’s commercial in Prague on April 27th. Header of Cynthia Rodriguez at Madison Square Garden for Justin Timberlake’s concert last August 15th. Photographer: Doug Meszler. Images thanks to WENN.

Alex Rodriguez’s annoyed wife Cynthia did jet off to Paris, but maybe it had more to do with spending her estranged husband’s money than meeting with her rumored lover, rocker Lenny Kravitz. The NY Daily News reports that she took off to the French city, paying for first class tickets for herself, two friends and their daughter. Once there she had spa treatments, ate at exclusive restaurants, and had a grand time all on her husband’s credit card. She’s also hired four different lawyers and Alex’s legal team claims she’s deliberately keeping him from his two daughters, Natasha, 3, and Ella, 11 weeks.

Spurned spouse Cynthia Rodriguez used the Yankee slugger’s credit card to the tune of $100,000 to punish him for a dalliance with Madonna that both he and the Material Girl deny, an A-Rod pal said.

“She’s been spending wildly,” the friend said. “She spent close to $100,000 on her jaunt to Paris.”

Cynthia flew the godparents of her daughters, Dodd and Sabina Romero, and their older daughter, first-class to the City of Light, the friend said.

There, Cynthia “had spa treatments, she went to the best restaurants,” the A-Rod friend said. “She originally was going to head to Spain, where Lenny Kravitz was touring.”

In addition to embarrassing Rodriguez and feeding false rumors that she and the rocker were an item, Cynthia gave A-Rod a taste of the gouging to come, the friend said.

“She needs four lawyers in two different states?” asked the friend. “That’s not the dream team, it’s the greed team.”

Also, the pal said, Cynthia has deliberately kept A-Rod from his daughters while tarring him as an absentee father.

“Alex desperately wanted to see his children while she was in Paris,” the friend said. “She blocked him. She said, ‘You cannot see them.’”

[From NY Daily News]

The News notes that A-Rod’s legal team is releasing this information in response to the many stories from Cynthia’s side about his questionable relationship with pop star Madonna. Yesterday her lawyer clarified an earlier statement and Alex’s alledged infidelity, calling his dalliance with Madonna” an affair of the heart” and not “sexual infidelity.” It sounds like A-Rod was doing some late night Kabbalah study at Madonna’s place. His former trainer called Rodriguez “brainwashed” by the singer, and said that he got all wistful and faraway whenever her songs were playing.

The Daily News had another story yesterday that revealed the lengths to which Madonna and Rodriguez went to keep their “friendship” secret. They claim that he frequently took the back service elevator at Madonna’s apartment complex - which led straight to her bedroom. Madonna has denied an affair with Rodriguez, and blamed the media and its gullible consumers for believing the reports about their affair. TMZ claims that she has timed the stories about the trouble in her seven year marriage and is postponing her divorce for maximum press coverage in advance of her European tour later this summer.

In light of Cynthia Rodriguez’s shopping spree, here’s Blu Cantrell doing “Hit ‘Em Up Style” from 2001. (There might be a commercial ahead of the video. Sorry but this is only embeddable version I could find:)

Photo Credit: Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez are shown at the “Grand opening of The 40/40 Club, a new sports bar and lounge located inside The Palazzo Hotel” in Las Vegas on 12/30/07, thanks to Chris Connor for WENN. They are shown below with daughter Natasha Rodriguez at FAO Schwarz as Alex reads from his book ‘Out of the Ballpark’ on 7/20/07, thanks to PNP for WENN.

TMZ claims to have an insider source that confirms what a lot of you have suspected about Guy Ritchie and Madonna’s marriage - they’ve been going through the motions for a while and are milking it for maximum publicity and profitability.

These two are said to be waiting to officially split until her “Sticky and Sweet” European tour is complete. They’re hoping that the continued speculation about their marriage will help Madonna sell as many tickets as possible and that she’ll continue to land on the front pages of the glossies. They even waited to visit divorce lawyers to ensure maximum buzz. When her tour is over and she has enough piles of cash to ensure that their children are set for life they plan to part amicably. It’s all business for Madonna’s personal life as well as her well-controlled career:

Never forget — Madonna is the master at using the media to her advantage, and the current are-they-or-aren’t-they divorcing drams is no different. Now we’re hearing Guy and Madge’s peeps have been planning this for months, hoping the hubbub will sell more tickets to her upcoming tour.

Well-placed sources tell us the Ritchies plan to officially split in November or December — after the Mrs.’ upcoming “Sticky and Sweet” world tour. Why? Big bucks. The concerts are expected to earn close to $300 mil worldwide, and they’ve decided to ear mark that to provide for their three children’s future…

There is a whole PR strategy that has been in place for some time. We’re told the Material Girl will be “very visible” in the months leading up to the tour to “generate a lot of publicity.” That’s when “news” of the marriage’s demise would slowly leak out, causing tongues to wag — and Madonna to be on the cover of papers and mags around the world.

The marriage, we’re told, has been effectively over for some time. The couple are friends, and have realized that it is in both of their interests to make a pile of cash from this tour. No working things out here — our spies say rumors of reconciliation are “garbage.” One person told us, “She is simply playing the media — and the public — as usual.”

[From TMZ]

TMZ talks a lot of shit about people, but their sources are usually solid and they had the scoops in the Heath Ledger case before the other news outlets. They don’t seem to make up stories based on hunches like the gossip rags and I would bet they have good reason to publish this. It makes sense, too.

Meanwhile Alex Rodriguez’s wife Cynthia officially filed for divorce in Miami today. She cited her husband’s “extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct” and said he “emotionally abandoned his wife and children.” Cynthia Rodriguez is seeking custody of their two children, Natasha, 3, Ella, 2 months, along with child support and alimony. Madonna is not named in the divorce papers, but as we reported earlier today her lawyer told the media that Alex’s “relationship with Madonna was the final straw for Mrs. Rodriguez.”

Third baseman Rodriguez has a 10 year contract with the NY Yankees worth $275 million. He has a prenuptial agreement with Cynthia, but she may contest that. The couple owns a 6 bedroom home in Miami worth $12 million and an apartment at Trump Plaza in NY worth $7.4 million. [Details from AP via Huffington Post]

We’ll have to wait a few months to see if this news about Madonna holding to her failed marriage for the sake of her tour is true. In the meantime Alex Rodriguez’s divorce will get a lot more media attention because of his alleged relationship with the pop star.

Photo credits: Header is of Guy Ritchie and Madonna leaving Harry’s Bar on 3/18/08 the last time there were rumors of a split. Photos below are of Guy Ritchie, David Banda, and Lourdes Leon outside the Kabbalah center on 7/5/08, thanks to Anthony Dixon for WENN.

Madonna wants you all to know she really, really isn’t planning on getting a divorce. She also isn’t involved with Alex Rodriguez, and thinks that newspapers and the internet are full of shit. Which is kind of funny, since that is what most newspaper and internet writers think of her.

She has issued this statement to People magazine.

In it, she says: “My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce. 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.”

“I have learned over the years not to take accusations and the many false reports about me very seriously. 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.”

Given Madonna’s reputation for being extremely guarded and controlling about her public image, I actually thought the wording of this statement was interesting. Firstly, she is ‘not planning on getting a divorce’. This would fit in with reports that Madonna and Guy are not comitted to a divorce yet, for the sake of their children. I think that a custody agreement could get complicated given that Madonna’s eldest daughter Lourdes is not Guy’s biological daughter, but from a previous relationship.

She also says she is not romantically involved with Alex Rodriguez, not that she has ‘never’ been involved with him in the past, ever.

Alex’s wife Cynthia will be filing for divorce this Monday, according to her newly employed attourney Earle Lilley. Lilley leaves no doubt who is the cause of the divorce, telling ABC News affiliates that “The relationship with Madonna was the final straw for Mrs. Rodriguez.”

Note by Celebitchy: What amuses me about Madonna’s statement is that she’s not complaining about newspapers and the Internet being incorrect - she’s suggesting that people who read newspapers and the Internet are incapable of telling truth from fiction, as if it’s a personal failing to pay attention to the news at all. In a haughty appearance on Oprah defending her illegal adoption of David Banda, she was all too proud to announce that she doesn’t watch the news, go online for news, or read a newspaper. This is f’ing ripe from a woman who spends tens of thousands of dollars a month on water that’s been blessed. Because smart people don’t take in information from different sources and use critical reasoning skills. According to Madonna, smart people pay someone else to tell them what’s true.

And it looks like she’s teaching Alex Rodriguez to pay an authority figure to tell him what’s true too. His own personal trainer says he’s been brainwashed by Madonna. Whether she screwed him or not, she surely screwed his marriage by helping him buy into the same belief system.

Alex Rodriguez is shown leaving his apartment on 6/7/08. He stopped and signed an autograph for a little kid in a Yankee shirt.

Alex Rodriguez’s wife Cynthia is blaming Madonna – and Kabbalah – for the demise of her marriage. Cynthia has said she thinks Madonna is using the religion to convince Alex that they are soul mates, and has some sort of “mind control” over him. And while I’d normally laugh at stuff like that, it would absolutely not surprise me at all if Madonna were using Kabbalah for evil instead of good.

Pop icon Madonna is using kabbalah to brainwash Yankee star Alex Rodriguez into believing they are “soulmates,” the ballplayer’s estranged wife is telling friends. While Madonna’s flack has vehemently denied any hanky-panky, insisting the slugger and the singer “are just friends,” Cynthia Rodriguez is convinced otherwise. She has privately insisted to pals that the “Hard Candy” singer beguiled A-Rod by introducing him to the mystical Jewish teachings of kabbalah.

“I feel like Madonna is using mind control over him,” Cynthia Rodriguez told the friend. “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.”

“This all started with kabbalah,” said the friend. “Alex told Cynthia that he’d discovered that he’d been looking for his soul mate. And now, he said, he’d found her.”

Three weeks after the birth of their daughter Ella, A-Rod dropped a knee-wobbling bomb on his wife, the friend said. Alex “came to Cynthia and claimed their marriage was over,” the friend said. “That was news to her. She’d had no clue. She said, ‘I was devastated,’” the friend said. “I’ve been with him for 13 years,” she told her friend. “I stood beside him through all his struggles.”

[From the Daily News]

This isn’t the first time A-Rod’s been accused of philandering. He’s often been seen at strip clubs in New York and Vegas. In May 2007 the New York Post published a front page photo of Rodriguez with a Las Vegas stripper at a hotel in Toronto. A month later, Cynthia got a bit of bad publicity for wearing a tank top that said “Fuck You” to a Yankees game. Many thought the shirt was a public response to what was already going on in her marriage.

While I would never, ever defend Madonna, it sounds like the biggest problem is Alex Rodriguez’s attitude towards his marriage. And probably some private things within that marriage. I doubt Madonna has figured out some evil spell to cast on the guy – it sounds like he was looking for an affair, and he probably got one. I met A-Rod a few times when I was a teenager through a relative that had a business relationship with him. This was back when he was playing for the Mariners. He already had a “I’m better than everyone else” attitude about him, which I figured was kind of expected.

In other news related to this debacle, it sounds like Lenny Kravitz really has been a good guy who got a lot of crap for doing a decent thing. The Daily News reports that Cynthia went to Paris on A-Rod’s suggestion - along with the godparents of one of her children - who is also Alex’s trainer - and his wife and their daughter. Kravitz has been out of the country, and played a gig in Belgium last night. He loaned his place to Cynthia as an act of kindness. Many think A-Rod or one of his friends planted the idea in the press - after his suggestion that Cynthia go to Paris to get away from the paparazzi, photographers were already waiting for her at Kravitz’s place when she arrived.

Here’s Alex Rodriguez leaving his Manhattan apartment on his way to the New York Yankees vs. Texas Rangers game on Wednesday. Photographer: A. Miller. Header of A Rod, Cynthia, and their daughter Natasha at FAO Schwarz in NYC for a reading of his book ‘Out of the Ballpark’ on July 20, 2007. Images thanks to WENN.