The great drama surrounding Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez continues.

When we last saw A-Rod, he was making late night visits to Madonna’s pad. Did she do a private performance of Hanky Panky for him? Who can say?

Now it appears that A-Rod’s wife Cynthia has left him … for rocker Lenny Kravitz!

Cynthia and Hubby A-Rod

Daily News says:

Yankee star Alex Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, have split, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Daily News Wednesday. “It’s true,” the source said of A-Rod’s separation from his wife of five years. “They’ve been having problems for about three months.” Word of the couple’s marital strife comes less than three months after they expressed how “thrilled” they were with the April 21 birth of their daughter, Ella Alexander.

Revelations of the couple’s not-so-great-nuptials came as new rumors surfaced on the Internet that Cynthia Rodriguez, 34, was having a fling with rocker Lenny Kravitz. The gossip item on PerezHilton.com quoted a “family friend” claiming C-Rod had gone on a romantic getaway in Paris with Kravitz. Kravitz, 44, is in the middle of his “Love Revolution Tour” in Europe.

Coincidentally, A-Rod, Madonna and Kravitz all share the same manager, Guy Oseary.

In May 2007, Cynthia Rodriguez endured the embarrassment of photos published of her husband entering a Toronto strip club with Scores dancer Joslyn Noel Morse. At the time, she packed her bags and bolted from their East Side pad.

It remains unclear if Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez are headed for divorce court. If so, she stands to get a heaping hunk of massive baseball and commercial endorsement earnings. A-Rod’s salary is about $28 million a year, his endorsements run even higher - and he owns lavish homes in New York and Miami.

Madonna, who is coping with rumors of her own breakup with husband Guy Ritchie, has denied she and A-Rod are an item. “They’re just friends,” Madonna’s spokeswoman insisted.

New York Post:

Yankee superstar Alex Rodriguez’s marriage is kaput, sources told The Post. A-Rod’s wife, Cynthia, has been shacked up with rocker Lenny Kravitz in Paris. The couple’s two daughters - 3-year-old Natasha and 2-month-old Ella - remained in Miami, sources said. The stunning news emerged a day after revelations that Alex Rodriguez has been paying late-night visits to Madonna’s Upper West Side apartment.

Cynthia and Hubby A-Rod

Cynthia Rodriguez, 34, has been in Paris for at least the past four days visiting Grammy-winner Kravitz. C-Rod was seen outside the 44-year-old Kravitz’s pad in the romantic City of Light as recently as Tuesday night.

C-Rod Going Lenny’s Way

Kravitz co-wrote and produced Madonna’s steamy 1990 hit, “Justify My Love,” whose salacious video raised more than a few eyebrows. Kravitz denied speculation he had an affair with Madonna at that time.

So, A-Rod is in New York, Cynthia is in Paris, and their kids are in Miami? Jeez, at least Madonna took her kids with her to New York.

Also: we think this whole thing has been orchestrated by evil mastermind Guy Oseary!

We must stop him and his evil plans!

LOL at the Drudge Report:

Starbucks to close 600 stores!

Starbucks Corp. has announced it’s closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States. The Seattle-based premium coffee company also announced Tuesday it expects to open fewer than 200 new company-operated stores in the United States in fiscal 2009. The company says it will try to place workers from closed stores in remaining Starbucks.

Ok, I guess that’s panic-worthy!

Hold on, Tweek. Check out this story from Channel 9 News in Orlando:

Florida may be hit especially hard by store closures and cuts at Starbucks. The coffee giant announced plans Tuesday to close 600 stores nationwide, slashing about 12,000 jobs. Central Florida’s slumping housing market may make it a target.

Experts believe many of the job cuts and closings could come from the 100-plus locations in Central Florida area. “I’m so depressed. Personally, I’m probably partially responsible for it, because I used to do Starbucks a lot and now I’ve had to cut back,” said customer Eilleen Antonescu.

Starbucks’ biggest national problem is lower-priced competitors, like McDonalds, offering similar coffees. But analysts say the company over-expanded in Central Florida, as well. In the Mall of Millenia area, for example, three Starbucks locations lie within walking distance of one another. “Companies, when they think they’ve turned onto something big, they over do it. They don’t know how to cut back, how to take it slowly,” Antonescu said.

Lewis Black saw this coming:

Why is there a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks?

Don’t forget the absolutely awesome Onion stories:

New Starbucks Opens In Rest Room Of Existing Starbucks

Starbucks To Begin Sinister ‘Phase Two’ Of Operation

Crude But Functional Starbucks Hewn From Rock Facing

When all the Starbucks have closed you’ll have to get them digitally from Facebook from then on.

You heard it right.
Source: CBS

A dwarf charged with prostituting an underage runaway will appear in Kings County, N.Y. Supreme Court on Monday. Jacqueline Green, a.k.a. ‘Shorty,’ due to her 3 foot 9 inch height, is charged with promoting prostitution and child endangerment for allegedly pimping a 15-year-old that ran away from a troubled home.

According to published reports, Green is accused of using her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment as a sex pad for clients who paid $250 per half-hour for intercourse, and $100 per half-hour of oral sex. Clients were found using Craigslist.

Green, 26, pleaded not guilty to all charges. The teenage girl was returned to her family. It is not clear how the two met. Neighbors at Green’s Brooklyn housing project were not surprised by the arrest, where she was described as a “hustler,” and a “player.” Reginald Forden told the Post “I didn’t know she was a pimp, but I’m not surprised.”

Green’s Bedford-Stuyvesant sex-pad apartment is located at 555 Quincy St.

Shrimp Pimp On Da Block!

We can’t help but think of Debbie Lee Carrington from Total Recall:

“If you need any help with this one, give me a holler!”

Tim Russert Dies From Apparent Heart Attack

Source: NY Post:

Tim Russert, NBC journalist and political heavyweight host of “Meet the Press,” has died after collapsing at NBC’s Washington news bureau, a source said. He was 58 years old.

Russert, who rose from the inside world of politics where he was former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s press secretary and one-time chief of staff to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was able to successfully cross over to political journalism and rise to become one of its leading lights.

More from MSNBC:

Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. He and his family had recently returned from Italy, where they celebrated the graduation of Russert’s son, Luke, from Boston College.

Tim Russert with his son Luke

Source 1: CNN
Source 2: BBC

A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, plowed into pedestrians with a truck in a crowded Tokyo neighborhood (Akihabara) Sunday and then stabbed 17 people in three minutes, killing at least seven in a grisly attack. “He was screaming as he was stabbing people at random,” an unidentified witness told public broadcaster NHK.

Kato was arrested with blood on his face. “The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people,” said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. “He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything,” Akaogi said.

The Akihabara district specialises in electronic gadgets and video games and is especially popular with people interested in comic books and distinctive fashion. It is also home to one of the first shops to sell personal robots and robotics. The area is often crowded on weekends.

Once rare, stabbing attacks have become more frequent in Japan in recent years. In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a slashing spree with two knives outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan. In June of 2001, a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan and killed eight children. He was executed in 2004.