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…)