So much for the manned guard gates in the fancy golf-and-polo Wellington neighborhood that’s now home to Madonna.

Two sources at the sprawling Palm Beach Polo & Country Club tell me that developer Glenn Straub, who currently runs the place, ordered security beefed up around the home that the singer is renting for $50,000 a month.

Three uniformed and armed guards are now taking turns roving the palm-lined street where the Material Girl has set up camp — an unusual sight in a country club that boasts quiet living.

“There’s been increased traffic on the street and there’d be no reason for it if it weren’t for Madonna,” said one source, who asked to remain anonymous. “Gawkers from all over the place have managed to get in, and even residents from elsewhere inside the community have been driving up and down her street.

“There’s been a few paparazzi, too.” (Read more…)

Jeanne Kraus, Erin O'Brien at the MS Cure Fund wingding

MS Cure Fund founder Susan Strachan secretly held up the hope that singer Madonna would pop in her fund-raiser during the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center’s season finale Saturday night in Wellington.

The Material Girl, a star presence during this horse-jumping season here, didn’t show. But that didn’t prevent Strachan from raising more than $100,000 in one of the center’s VIP tents as riders in the arena competed for a total $600,000 in purses.

The Wild Wild West-themed event brought out Palm Beachers who rarely venture off their island, as well as Wellington horsie types.

The two groups, by the way, don’t mesh. Strachan had to find a different table for a crew from Wellington who found out they’d be sitting next to Palm Beachers, and wouldn’t have it.

“It’s our first event like this,” said Strachan, a multiple sclerosis suffered who once was the Palm Beach head of fundraising for the Boston-based Dana Farber Cancer Institute. “Many Palm Beachers told me they’d come just so they wouldn’t have to wear their tuxes for one Saturday night.”

So, if Madonna wasn’t there, who was? Click here to find out. (Read more…)

Get ready to see a lot more of Madonna, Wellington!

Madonna's rented digs in Wellington

A real estate source in the West Palm Beach suburb tells me the singer of Like a Prayer and Like a Virgin recently signed a lease on a sprawling crib at Palm Beach Polo and Country Club. The one-month lease expires March 31, but the singer is so taken by Wellington that she is looking to buy.

(For photos and a video of the home press here.)

Between now and then, the singer is expected to continue her horseback riding training, including jumping and polo. Madonna first spent two weeks in Wellington in January with her personal trainer. She left for New York City but returned a week later to hammer out the lease details and hang out with polo superstar and Ralph Lauren model Nacho Figueras.

(Read more…)

Update: Madonna is back in town. She quietly slipped into the stands of the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington Saturday afternoon for the 26-goal game between Black Watch and Las Monjitas. Guess who plays for Black Watch? That’s right, Nacho Figueras.

Polo superstar Nacho Figueras spent part of Friday night’s fund-raising gala for Best Buddies International deflecting questions about Madonna.

Nacho Figueras with wife Delphina Friday at The Breakers (Photo by Michele Sandberg)

The Ralph Lauren model Figueras gave the Material Girl private polo lessons during her recent two-week stay in Wellington. She later returned to watch him play in a high-goal match.

Does anyone need more proof these days to make something of it?

“Shhhh, don’t make me talk about that,” Figueras said within earshot of his wife Delfina, a former model.

Well, is Madonna abandoning her interest in show jumping for polo?

“She is learning polo indeed,” Figueras said, “but whether she likes it better than jumping, you need to ask her yourself.

“She just likes horses.”

Kennedy clan stalwart Anthony Shriver with ball chairman Mark Freitas

Friday’s shindig at Palm Beach’s The Breakers for the non-profit founded by Kennedy clan do-gooder Anthony Shriver, meanwhile, raised more than $550,000, according to Chairman Mark Freitas. Best Buddies pairs up disabled people with mentors.

“A month ago, we were thinking about canceling,” Freitas said. “And now we raise that kind of money.”

Miami Beach’s Shriver, 43, took advantage of the gala to announce that his wife Alina, 44, is expecting their fifth child.

Remember. Shriver’s a Kennedy.

(For more photos by Michele Sandberg, click here.) (Read more…)

Singer Madonna returned to Wellington this weekend, and this time she took in some polo.

Her Madgesty and a posse of pretty boys materialized at the Polo Club International Palm Beach stadium shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday. She caught the last three chukkers of a 20-goal contest from the jam-packed grand stand.

Madonna talks wickets with polo star Nacho Figueras and his wife, Delfina, Sunday

The Material Girl, wearing a fedora and thick sunglasses, was spotted hanging with star player and Ralph Lauren model Nacho Figueras, and his wife, model Delfina Blaquier.

I’m told Figueras gave Madonna a personal polo lesson a couple weeks ago. But when the two hooked up again in Sunday, Figueras’ missus seemed as much into Madonna as he was.

Madonna, who recently broke up with Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, has been training in the art of show jumping in Wellington for nearly three weeks.

Madonna and her crew at the polo club Sunday

Kelly Klein

Now that Madonna high-tailed it out of Wellington, I’m told by several sources in the horsey set that Kelly Klein, ex-trophy wife of couturier Calvin Klein, took the 50-year-old Material Girl under her pretty wing when the singer arrived in Wellington for horseback training two weeks ago.

Madonna and her personal horse trainer were spotted riding an obstacle course on a field in the Palm Beach Point development, on the west side of Wellington. That’s where coffee table-book author Klein keeps her horses.

And Klein had Madonna over at her $500,000-townhouse at Palm Beach Polo several times.

Apparently, Klein is the one who should be thanked by fans at the Winter Equestrian Festival for the presence of goons who wouldn’t allow pictures of the singer.

“Kelly personally called (Palm Beach International Equestrian Center owner Mark Bellissimo) to tell him Madonna was coming,” one source said. “Kelly wanted to make sure Madonna would be comfortable and that no one would bother her.” (Read more…)

Finally, she showed up.

Madonna, who’s been practicing her horse-jumping skills in Wellington for a week, made her first appearance at the Winter Equestrian Festival Sunday.

She watched professional show-jumpers for nearly two hours from her third-row $35,000-per-season table at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center’s VIP club.

The Material Girl managed to go practically incognito behind thick dark glasses and under an orange baseball hat with a Che Guevara-like silhouette of her on the front.

The few fans who recognized the singer of Papa Don’t Preach were shooed away by show ground owner Mark Bellissimo’s red-shirted goons.

Minding their own business at nearby tables: Morning talk-show host Kelly Ripa (Live with Regis and Kelly) and CNN prime-timer Lou Dobbs.

(Photo courtesy of Fred Montana)

Kelly Ripa Sunday at the Winter Equestrian Festival

Everybody’s been waiting for Madonna at the Winter Equestrian Festival’s horse-jumping competition in Wellington – and it’s Kelly Ripa who shows up!

My sources at the show grounds tell me the Material Girl, who’s supposed to be in town to train in show-jumping for next two weeks, is expected to take her place in a luxury suite shortly after 1 p.m. to watch the pros do their things.

But the early birds, and paparazzi with their long lenses, have been eyeing the blonde star of Live with Regis and Kelly as she’s watching her daughter with soap star Mark Consuelos compete.

(Picture by Phelps Media Group)