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Tattle: Report: Wife's had it with A-Rod
By Howard Gensler
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Tattle Columnist
Jul 28, 2008
NEW YORK, New York, it's a wonderful town. Especially if you're a gossip writer.
As if the Gossip Gods weren't smiling enough with the Christie Brinkley - Peter Cook divorce proceedings - in which Cook admitted on the stand to an affair with a teenager, to a porn addiction and to masturbating in front of his Webcam - along comes a rumored liaison between maritally troubled Kabbalah aficionado Madonna and Yankees star Alex Rodriguez , plus Alex's wife , Cynthia , jetting off to Paris to be consoled by good friend Lenny Kravitz .
Yesterday Houston TV station KTRK and the Miami Herald reported that Cynthia will file for divorce today.
Married since 2002 and mother of two with Alex, Cynthia says the marriage is over because of Alex's cheatin' ways.
Houston attorney Earle Lilly , who said he was hired by Cynthia last week to launch the divorce case, told KTRK that the star's "relationship with Madonna was the final straw for Mrs. Rodriguez."
Rodriguez's wife also is represented by attorneys Maurice Kutner and Anthony Sabatino , both of Miami, and John Van Ness of Houston, the Herald reported.
That's a lot of lawyers for Cynthia, but Alex, as you're probably aware, is not paid minimum wage.
"She feels that she has exhausted every opportunity to salvage the marriage and that Alex has emotionally abandoned her and the children and has left her with no choice but to divorce him," Kutner told the Herald .
Weird, Alex said he'd been emotionally abandoned too.
By Derek Jeter .
Cynthia's expertly tailored designer suit is expected to be filed early today in Dade County Family Court.
A-Rod has refused to comment on his relationship with Madonna, who, in a statement posted on people.com. yesterday, denied any romantic involvement with the slugger.
"My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce," Madonna said. "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."
Did Hogan (down) underpay tax?
"Crocodile Dundee" star Paul Hogan challenged Australian tax authorities Friday to track him down in the United States after a newspaper report that he was under investigation for tax evasion.
Hogan has repeatedly denied that he has dodged taxes, saying Australia's claim is a croc.
The Australian national newspaper reported that Aussie tax authorities had asked for help from the IRS here in obtaining Hogan's banking records. Four companies related to Hogan have been ordered to hand over documents, it said, citing court documents.
"Come and get me," Hogan said with a grin.
He spoke with Australia's Ten Network television outside his Santa Barbara mansion, delivering an obscenity-laced statement addressed to the Australian Taxation Office.
Hogan is fighting the IRS involvement, arguing that it is being used to obtain documents that Australian officials could not lawfully obtain, his Australian lawyer, David Rydon , told the newspaper.
Hogan said he was returning to Australia in September to make a movie.
"I'll be arrested the minute I land on the shore, of course, but I have a gun, so be warned," he joked.
New house for Poe folks
A cottage in the Bronx where Edgar Allan Poe lived toward the end of his life and wrote some of his classic pieces, is getting a renovation.
Long a tourist attraction, the small five-room building will soon give visitors an even better sense of Poe's final years with a planned renovation and the construction of a visitor center.
Work is expected to start in the spring and last a year. The cottage will be closed to the public during the work. The restoration will cost about $250,000.
Construction already is under way on a visitor center (aka gift shop), and that $4.2 million project is expected to be completed in a year.
The center has been designed to evoke Poe's poem "The Raven," said parks department commissioner Adrian Benepe . The outside of the building is designed to resemble Poe's raven.
But what about downstairs, when workmen start rebuilding the support wall and find the bones of Fortunato and the Cask of Amontillado?
Tattbits
* Magic Johnson 's normally
publicity-shy wife, Cookie , is emerging as a spokeswoman in a campaign urging black women to get tested for HIV.
Cookie is appearing with the former Lakers star in a five-year, $60 million public-service campaign with ads directed by Spike Lee .
Cookie was two months pregnant when her husband tested positive for HIV in 1991.
The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation says almost a third of cases diagnosed among blacks in 2006 were women, double the rate for white women.
Cookie, who tested negative for the virus, says part of the community still has the attitude that "it can't happen to me."
* Cindy Crawford was in Ma-
dison, Wis., over the weekend to raise awareness of pediatric cancer.
Cindy's younger brother, Jeff , was a patient at University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital. He died of leukemia in 1975 just before his fourth birthday.
Crawford is the honorary chair of Kids with Courage, which hosted its fourth reunion of childhood-cancer survivors Saturday in Madison.
* Jack White of the White
Stripes and the Raconteurs , has penned a poem for the Detroit Free Press expressing his strong feelings for his hometown of Detroit. White had been getting flack from Motor City fans since he moved to Nashville two years ago.
Part of the poem reads: "Detroit, you hold what one's been seeking, Holding off the coward-armies weakling, Always rising from the ashes not returning to the earth."
Huh? Instead of flack from Detroiters, White will now be the recipient of quizzical looks.
* Amy Winehouse sipped from
a glass of red wine and looked a bit unsteady on her feet as she appeared in front of a large audience at the Rock in Rio music festival southeast of Madrid on Friday.
Amy has obviously been reading up on the health properties of red wine and has added it to her regimen.
* Kendra Wilkinson , one of
Hugh Hefner 's "Girls Next Door," was playing golf in West L.A. last Friday, when her tricked-out Cadillac Escalade got stolen.
TMZ.com reports that Kendra's ride was found a few days later in South Central L.A. but that her custom rims had been boosted.
Looks like Hef's going to have to give Kendra a rim job. *
Daily News wire services contributed to this report.
E-mail gensleh@phillynews.com .
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