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Madonna shows Giants support with Cruz-style salsa steps

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INDIANAPOLIS — Gisele may be praying for Tom Brady — but dancing fool Madonna is saving her prayers for the Giants’ Victor Cruz.

She broke into Cruz’s trademark salsa dance yesterday at a press conference publicizing her halftime show as she gushed over Big Blue’s star wide receiver.

“He inspired me,” Madonna declared as she did about 20 seconds of hot Latin stepping similar to the wideout’s familiar touchdown celebration.

“I’ve been practicing,” added Madonna, who was sporting a vest-and-slacks outfit with a chain hanging from a her hip. “Do you think he would approve?”

The singer also showed that her blood runs true Giants Blue when asked which of the two Super Bowl quarterbacks — the Patriots’ Brady or the Giants’ Eli Manning — she would rather have dinner with.

“I have to say Eli because he’s from New York,” she said.

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She even took a shot at the Patriots’ star tight end, Rob Gronkowski, who has missed practices this week because of an ankle injury.

“I would just tape it, take an anti-inflammatory and get my butt out there,” the peppery pop queen quipped.

Not all the questions were about football. The Material Girl fielded one about her old flame, Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez, and rumors that he has a painting of himself as a centaur — half-man, half-horse — hanging from his bedroom ceiling.

“Wow. If he does, I haven’t seen it. But I think he has a very large picture of me lying on a horse,” she said, without elaborating.

When it came to her own Super Bowl XLVI performance — at which she is set to perform her new single “Give Me All Your Luvin’ ” — she said her preparations for the show have been as strenuous as any of the players’.

“I have never worked so hard or been so detail-oriented or freaked out as much,” she said.

“I feel like I’m one of the football players, with all the physical therapy I have to do.”

The video for the new single, which was set to be previewed on “American Idol” last night, will debut today on video billboards owned by Clear Channel, including ones in New York City.

As for her Super Bowl performance, Madonna assured football fans: “There will be no wardrobe malfunction. Promise.”

Asked if she had any rituals she will perform before taking the stage, she said: “Lots of prayers.”

As The Post reported yesterday, Brady’s wife, Gisele Bundchen, is also hoping for some help from prayers, sending out an e-mail asking friends and family to pray for her hubby to survive the Giants’ fierce pass rush.

Brady told The Post, “I’m not aware of it,” when asked about the e-mail, in which the supermodel asked pals “to join me on this positive chain and pray for him, so he can feel confident, healthy and strong” for the game.

Yesterday, the note led to a blitz of laughter online.

“Do u blame Gisele 4 asking 4 some prayers 4 hubby? That Giants D is scary!” quipped basketball guru Dick Vitale on Twitter.

Fans also weighed in on Gisele’s pleas for divine intervention.

“Even she knows he’s going to need all the help he can get,” said fan Pamela Mosher Hogan on The Post’s Web site.

Post reader Ray Hackinson, of Queens, joked: “Gisele’s next move to help her husband’s team? Is she going to have Tim Tebow take a knee?”

Rob Whitman, 47, a lawyer from Long Island, said, “I always thought God was a Giants fan.”

Additional reporting by Gillian Kleiman, Steve Serby, Todd Venezia and Don Kaplan