We're fine and handy

MADONNA and GUY RITCHIE stepped out hand-in-hand to show the world their marriage is back on track.

Guy gently cradled his wife’s arm and led her from their car as the couple went for a romantic meal at a New York restaurant.

The public show of unity — the first time they have been snapped together for more than a month — came as pop queen Madonna faces the publication of a bombshell book by her brother.

It will claim that she was a WEAK child who grew up to LIE about her rags-to-riches story, and that film director Guy is HOMOPHOBIC.

Homesick Madonna, 49, and Guy, 39, found their seven-year marriage in crisis over her desire to return permanently to New York.

Guy is said to want to remain in Britain, seeing it as a better environment for their three kids.

Madonna was also hit by rumours of a relationship with New York Yankee baseball star ALEX RODRIGUEZ, 32.

According to NYPost.com, Rodriguez - dubbed A-Rod - has split from his wife CYNTHIA who has been staying with rocker LENNY KRAVITZ in Paris.

But The Sun told yesterday how Madonna hit back by denying a romance and insisting she had “no plans” for divorce.

That evening the couple laughed and joked at plush Italian restaurant Cesca, not far from their Upper West Side apartment.

They shared a table at the rear where they sipped red wine and were seen deep in conversation.

Attentive
One fellow diner said: “Madonna ate fish and vegetables while Guy had a meat dish. They talked animatedly the whole time.

“She looked relaxed and laughed quite a few times. The waiter said they were swapping stories about their kids.

“Guy seemed very attentive — there was nothing to suggest they were talking about divorce at all.”

Pals say the couple are determined for their marriage to succeed for the sake of the kids — Lourdes, 11, Rocco, seven, and adopted David, two.

Madonna is in America rehearsing for a US tour. She is said to be seething that her brother CHRIS CICCIONE is lifting the lid on her private life in a book out later this month.

Madonna, known to pals as “Em”, has gone to great lengths to find out the contents — and so far her investigative work has uncovered material deeply hurtful to both her and Guy.


A source close to the couple said: “The book is harsh on Em, but even more on Guy. Chris blames him for turning Madonna into a bit of a homophobe.

“He is going to claim Guy calls Madonna’s gay following ‘the Bunny Posse’. He will list rude comments Guy is supposed to have made to Em’s best friend Ingrid Casares, who is also gay.”

Madonna has not spoken to her brother — a recovering alcoholic and junkie — for more than two years. She blames their crumbling relationship on his heroin addiction as well as his refusal to accept her help.

The source added: “Em hasn’t offered Chris any help for a few years. But she did hire him a while ago to do some work on her New York apartment.

“He received a very, very healthy pay cheque — and they didn’t even speak directly. Their only dialogue was through Madonna’s art buyer.

“Chris did a bit of work but after a while took the money and ran, leaving the work unfinished.”

In the book Chris, 47, tells at great length about their trauma as kids when their mother died.

He claims Madonna was a weak and unstable girl who developed a phobia of leaving the house and would behave erratically at school.

The book also challenges the story that Madonna first arrived in New York with nothing more than $17 in her pocket — and a determination to succeed. He insists her father had given her a list of people to contact.

Madonna is also furious about his allegation that though she tried at first to help little sister Paula make it as a singer and a model in the 1980s, she later sabotaged her career.

He will also sling mud at Madonna’s relationship with her dad and step-mother.

Chris — who has been on Madonna’s pay roll in the past as an artistic director — has trousered a £275,000 advance for spilling the beans and will rake in more from royalties.

Sources close to Madonna believe she is considering a powerful response.

One told The Sun: “She has discussed writing her own book. She is weighing up whether she should give her version of events — including life with Guy as a wife and mother.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article1373137.ece#OTC-RSS&ATTR=Bizarre