Bradley Ruderman, a convicted felon who ran a Ponzi scheme embezzling over $25 Million from clients, has claimed that Rodriguez was part of the Hollywood underground poker ring that included numerous celebrities. He not only claimed that Rodriguez was a player, but played against him personally in the games. Ruderman used part of the money he embezzled from clients to pay off gambling debts in association with the high stakes games.

Several big name celebrity and poker tournament players have been named as participating in the games. Toby Maguire and pro player Gabe Kaplan were both sued by victims of Ruderman’s Ponzi scheme to recover winnings. Both settled out of court.

Rodriguez was not named in the Ponzi victim’s suit and his participation in the games has actually been described as somewhat limited. However, the allegation of his playing in the games was still enough for Major League officials to act. According to a MLB spokesperson, “Like all situations, when we receive new information we investigate.”

This is not the first time that Rodriguez was investigated over his involvement in poker. Back in 2005, New York Yankee bosses told him to curb his gambling habits after Rodriguez was spotted in an underground poker game with pro Phil Hellmuth. They claim that it proved unsavory and could be harmful to his overall image.

It is unknown at this time whether or not Major League Baseball will do anything to punish Rodriguez. Fortunately, his gambling stayed strictly to poker and did not involve any gambling on baseball. With that said, this should be a lesson to other players to keep out of underground games as they are not only illegal, but they cannot guarantee any true level of privacy.

Jessica Simpson is working on a remake of classic U.S. show “I Love Lucy” with the pregnant star in the lead role.

The actress/singer is due to give birth to her first child imminently, but she´s already focusing on her showbiz come back and has reteamed with TV producer Ben Silverman, the man behind her new style show Fashion Star, to breathe new life in to the popular 1950s sitcom.

And Simpson has her sights set on getting into Lucille Ball´s shoes to bring back the role she made famous.

Throughout an interview with Elle magazine, Simpson is heard speaking about the future project with Silverman, during which he asks her, “What about that I Love Lucy thing you and I were talking about? The sitcom. We really should go to the networks. It could be superfunny.”

Simpson replies, “Let´s develop it. But I think it would be good to play myself, a new mom, and not do anything so different that people won´t grasp it.”

And Silverman thinks the show will be a hit with Simpson in the starring role.

“She is just naturally funny. Jess has such a disarming wit for a beautiful girl, making fun of herself in the most charming way.” he said.

The Hunger Games has shattered U.S. box office records, bringing in a breathtaking $19.7 million overnight which makes it the highest-grossing midnight opener ever for any non-sequel.

The film adaptation of writer Suzanne Collins´ action novels, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, had previously made $15 million in advance ticket sales, and it also drew huge crowds of people as fans lined up outside cinemas to get a first-look at the film upon its release in the early hours this Friday.

Nonetheless The Hunger Games still has a good way to go before reaching the gold status of the latest Twilight sequels – the last three movies have grossed more than $26 million in midnight openings, whilst the final Harry Potter sequel, The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, is way out front with $43.5 million .

The Hunger Games is expected to break further box office records when opening weekend figures will be released this Sunday.

Whitney Houston was a constant cocaine consumer who had the drug in her system when she drowned in a hotel room bathtub, coroner’s officials said Thursday after issuing autopsy results that also noted heart problems led to her death.

The disclosure ended weeks of rumours about what killed the Grammy-winning artist on Feb. 11 on the eve of the Grammy Awards.

Houston was discovered submerged in the bathroom of her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and her death was ruled unintentional. Several bottles of prescription drugs were found in her room, but coroner’s officials said there weren’t extreme quantities.

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are both willing to end their marriage with an annulment, but each is insisting that the other confess to fraud — and that’s what is holding up their settlement.

Sources connected to the former couple told TMZ … Kim would be happy to annul the marriage, if Kris will admit he defrauded her by promising to live with her in Hollywood and then demanding that she move to Minnesota.

Kris wants Kim to admit fraud — that she never had any intention of making this a real marriage … something Kim has adamantly denied.

Gwyneth Paltrow has taken on New York Times’ allegation that she had hired a writer for her best-selling cookbook.

In a feature story about culinary ghostwriters, The New York Times described Julia Turshen as being one for Paltrow in ‘My Father’s Daughter’, RadarOnline reported.

It brought a quick and decisive response from the actress/author on her Facebook page.

“Love @nytimes dining section but this weeks facts need checking. No ghost writer on my cookbook, I wrote every word myself,” she posted.

“The Hunger Games” is poised to become the next big blockbuster series, but star Jennifer Lawrence says that there is no feud between the casts of the two movies. Rumors circulated last week that Lawrence was insulting “Twilight” and Kristen Stewart, but “The Hunger Games” star says that the rumors are not true.

Jennifer Lawrence reached out to Kristen Stewart, to say that stories circulating in the gossip tabloids that she was putting down her “Twilight” counterpart are completely false.

“I wrote her an email because there’s this huge article about a “Twilight”/”Hunger Games” feud and we’ve never met before, we’ve never spoken,” the 21-year-old actress told Access Hollywood.

“And there were all these fake quotes from me that were actually hilarious, and some of them were from my ‘pal,’” Lawrence said, using her fingers to make the symbol of quotation marks. “When I was reading it I was cracking up, but then I was like, ‘Oh my God, what if she thinks it’s true?’

It didn’t take long for infidelity rumors to surface after Peter Facinelli and Jennie Garth announced their split this week.

The couple, married for 11 years, has since put on a united front to set the record straight, denying any speculation that a third party was involved in their decision to part ways.

“There are rumors out there which are completely untrue and hurtful to our family,” the pair said in a joint statement. “We just want to make it very clear – there are no third parties involved.”

Facinelli and Garth’s recent statement comes one day after they jointly announced their plans to divorce.

“While we have decided to end our marriage, we both share the same deep love and devotion to our children. We remain dedicated to raising our beautiful daughters together. We ask for privacy and respect during this time,” they said Tuesday.

Russell Brand has claimed he grabbed a photographer’s iPhone and threw it through a window as “a tribute” to Apple boss Steve Jobs who died in 2011.

The 36-year-old ‘Arthur’ star has been named in a police report in New Orleans, which alleges he snatched the phone out paparazzo Timothy Jackson’s hand before hurling it away.

Reported by TMZ.com, Timothy – who filed the report for “criminal damages” – was with a number of photographers and started taking photos of Russell on his iPhone from his car this Monday.

He then claims the comedian wrestled the cell phone out of his hand and threw it at a nearby abandoned building, where it smashed a window.

Police sources told TMZ.com that the matter is being investigated, Russell tweeted his fans:

“Since Steve Jobs died I cannot bear to see anyone use an iphone irreverently, what I did was a tribute to his memory.”

“American Idol” semifinalist Jermaine Jones is getting the boot from the show, and it’s not because America didn’t vote for him.

The 25-year-old vocal instructor from Pine Hill, N.J., tweeted Tuesday night that he would no longer be appearing on the hit singing competition. “Awww I will no longer b on the show,” he wrote on his official “Idol” account. The tweet, as well as the account, were quickly and unsurprisingly deleted.

According to the gossip website TMZ, Jones got the boot after producers discovered that the hopeful had been arrested twice and that he still had a number of outstanding warrants. One of the alleged incidents was reportedly of a violent nature, with Jones allegedly getting into a fight at a New Jersey hotel; according to TMZ, he allegedly gave false names to the police on both accounts.