Having put the Obamas on one of last month's covers in despair at the absence of celebrity gossip, Us Weekly finally has a genuine celebrity scoop. In a new issue on newsstands tomorrow, the magazine reports that New York Yankee baseball player Alex Rodriguez has been making late-night visits to Madonna's apartment on Central Park West. (OK! has much the same basic story but highlights the two supposed lovers' gym trysts.) The singer, 49, is said to have consulted a lawyer about divorce from her husband of seven years, film director Guy Ritchie; Alex Rodriguez, known to sports fans as A-Rod, would have been eight years old when Madonna released her first hit, Lucky Star.

The story is a little thin: the basis appears to be a source telling Us Weekly that "all the doormen are talking." But it's plausible. It might not be politically correct to say, but Madonna's long displayed a liking for Latin men. And the troubles of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan attract less public attention than they did; and the price of celebrity baby exclusives is beyond the capacity of anybody but OK's Richard Desmond. In that context, Janice Min's team at Us Weekly can hardly be blamed for splashing an affair between two bona fide superstars. Its competitors must be devastated this morning, but not as much as the New York Post, for whom this would have been the most perfect story: a singer who made her name in New York with the city's most hated sports celebrity.