Did more than one blonde with biceps and thighs that can crush cans rendezvous with a tall, dark and athletic type in New York last week? Us reports that Madonna, whose Sticky & Sweet tour just hit the U.S., joined New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez for a "cozy dinner" at a Mexican eatery, a meeting their respective reps insist never happened.

But spies tell the New York Post that the tête-à-tête did indeed take place, with a source relaying, "Madonna entered through the front door half an hour after A-Rod arrived and had her security guards check the exits before she sat down at a quiet corner table."

Mrs. Guy Ritchie and the baseballer, both of whom vehemently denied affair allegations that surfaced last summer (an attorney for Rodriguez's now ex-wife Cynthia called it an "affair of the heart"), supposedly left separately after a rollicking meal with two male guests.

The paper also claims that Rodriguez, who is rumored to have made a sizable donation to the Kabbalah-devoted Big M's Raising Malawi charity, was spotted entering her Manhattan apartment building a couple of days later, slipping in through the garage in her chauffeur-driven car.

"Gaunt and frail"? Madonna is snapped with son David in New York on Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, Madonna's razor-sharp cheekbones are once again sparking whispers that she's pushing her harder-than-an-advanced-calculus-exam body too hard.

The London Sun wonders whether she's gone from sinewy to undersized after she was snapped looking "gaunt and frail" (its description -- she looked her usual scarily muscular self to us) as she exited the Kabbalah Center in New York with 2-year-old son David.

But Madonna's ever-vigilant spokeswoman says she's merely in tip-top shape for her worldwide tour, explaining to the tab, "She may look thinner than usual, but she was dancing and singing better than ever and ate a nice healthy meal."

The refueling is necessary given the endurance test that is her onstage performance.

In a review titled "Aerobic, Not Erotic: The Concert as Workout," the New York Times describes Madonna's North American kickoff concert Saturday in New Jersey thusly: "Has there ever been a colder pop sex symbol? For all the invitations in her lyrics, Madonna has always projected more calculation and industriousness than affection. She works; her audience looks and pays, becoming another conquest."

After the final number, the onstage video screens captured a close-up of Madonna's "sweaty, unsmiling, exhausted face."

"She had worked hard," says the paper, "and showed it."