Madonna lines up new man A-Rod

Friends of Madonna have revealed that she is already lining up a replacement man following the announcement last week of her impending divorce from Guy Ritchie. According to a report in the Daily Mail, the man in question is the US baseball star Alex Rodriguez (pictured with Madonna), known as 'A-Rod', with whom, it is claimed, she would like to have a child.

Said a friend: "She thinks he's physically a great specimen. And if she is going to have another child, he would be the ideal man to bring one to her." The paper points out that there is no suggestion that Madonna, 50, has to date had a physical relationship with 33-year-old Rodriguez. However, she was named as 'the other woman' in divorce papers filed by Rodriguez's wife Cynthia earlier this year. And just a few days ago, she was spotted with Rodriguez in a restaurant in New York.

The Mail claims that the pair are expected to go public with their feelings for one another in the coming months. And unlike Ritchie, who always seemed to be paying lip-service to his wife's pet religion, Rodriguez has allegedly pledged to spread the Kabbalah religion around the world. To wit, he will "write a range of sports-themed books to bring the message of Kabbalah to young boys," says the Mail. Madonna has already brought out a similar series of books for girls.

It is not only Madonna's friends who have been talking. An intimate of Guy Ritchie, 40, claims that he seldom had sexual relations with the singer in the last 18 months of their marriage and that when they did, because of her obsessive gym regime, it was like "cuddling up to a piece of gristle".