Lance Armstrong is apparently quite the pal, one who's even willing to offer up his sturdy lap for a pocket-size twin mogul in need of a seat. The Tour de France champ, 36, is dismissing "eww"-inspiring reports that he recently gave a tonsillectomy to Ashley Olsen as she perched on his knee at a New York hot spot.

"Ashley Olsen and I are strictly friends," Armstrong declares to the New York Post. "We have hung out amongst other friends, and she strikes me as a nice, smart lady."

While the socializing cyclist gets points for complimenting his pal's personality and brains, his denial probably won't quell speculation about his connection to Mary-Kate's poutier half, whom he also reportedly accompanied to dinner and a Broadway show.

As for the rumor that Ashley turned up at his twin daughters' Austin, Texas, elementary school for show-and-tell, insiders insist to TMZ.com that it never happened.

In the meantime, Sheryl Crow is labeling as lies a Life & Style story that alleged she was sniping about her former fiancée's new friend.

The mag says the singer-songwriter thinks it's "funny" that Lance would date the dewy starlet, and claims that when she was asked about the purported pairing, "Sheryl rolled her eyes and said, 'That's pathetic. Ashley's a kid.'"

In a posting on her Web site, Crow fumed she was "beyond angry" over the tabloid report, which she dismisses as "completely fabricated."

"Lance and I are friends," she said. "I have a lot of respect for him and what he does in the world of cancer. What he does in his personal life, whether it be true or not, is none of my business nor would I ever comment on it. Let's leave it at that."

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