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Ariana Madix is back in L.A. after a weekend of cutting loose in Mexico ... and she's super tight with a male friend, but we're told it's not what you think.

AM was at LAX Monday with the guy who was her plus 1 for the wedding she attended in Oaxaca, Mexico -- and they seem to be getting along well with each other, hugging quite a bit while waiting for their ride.

However, a source close to Ariana tells TMZ ... the man she traveled out of the country with is just one of her best friends. No rebound here, folks.

TMZ broke the story ... Tom Sandoval was invited to the wedding too, but couldn't go due to a prior commitment -- and his decision was made before his cheating came to light. With Tom out, it seems her BFF stepped in to take his place.

FYI -- Ariana was looking as happy as she could be over the weekend in Mexico ... dancin' up a storm and giving off tons of good energy.

While the NFL is in a free agency frenzy, Cincinnati Bengals stars Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are steering clear of the chaos ... by enjoying a yacht party with a group of women in Miami!!

Joe Burrow's favorite targets hopped aboard a fancy boat in Florida on Monday ... and they had plenty of tequila to go around for their day in the sun.

Higgins' Clemson teammate/Arizona Cardinals linebacker Isaiah Simmons and several female companions joined the Bengals stars for the trip ... and everything seemed pretty chill as they sat around and talked.

Of course, Chase is still in the middle of his rookie deal ... so he's not sweating all the deals being made left and right as the NFL's free agency period kicks off.

Higgins, on the other hand, is entering the final year of his current contract ... and the Bengals are hoping to lock him in long-term.

Safe to say he's not worried about his status ... sitting with a bottle of what appears to be Casamigos in front of him as he enjoys some R&R.

The teammates that party on yachts together ... win together??

Wyclef Jean alarmed fans this week with a video revealing his first-ever stay in the hospital ... but thankfully, the former Fugees star is looking at a full recovery after he gets some much-needed rest.

Wyclef tells TMZ, after returning to Los Angeles from Miami last weekend, he felt numbness on the right side of his face and immediately sought care from his family doctor, who sent him to the ER.

He says the tests Dr. Waleed Lashin requested an overnight stay in the hospital ... and the early indication is his face numbness was the result of exhaustion, which is also likely stress related.

Wyclef's thanking all of his concerned fans, and says he's back at home with more tests to follow next week.

Lala Kent isn't mincing words on the cheating scandal between Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss ... dishing out some choice insults at 'em, and even giving predictions on the reunion.

We got the "Vanderpump Rules" star Monday leaving PrettyLittleThing in L.A., where we asked her thoughts on the latest in the saga -- namely, what she made of Tom Schwartz finally breaking his silence, and what she's expecting when the whole cast sits down for a postmortem on this past season.

Let's just say ... LK did NOT hold back on anything here, including descriptions for both Tom and Raq. For instance, she labels one a "narcissist" and another a "bottom-feeder" -- you can watch for yourself to see whom she considers which.

When it comes to the reunion -- where all this drama will undoubtedly be addressed one way or another -- Lala has some thoughts on how it should be staged. In her mind, a WWE deathmatch environment might not be the worst idea ... that's how contentious things are.

Lala suggests Tom and Raquel may be together, even now, and could well show up as a couple. According to her, much of the 'VR' cast is in the dark on where things stand.

Finally ... LK talks Tom Schwartz -- Sandoval's business partner, who's also taken some heat for allegedly knowing about the affair for a little while now, but staying silent regardless. Lala makes no bones about how she thinks he should've handled it ... on the up and up.

If you can't tell, Lala is clearly team Ariana ... who, BTW, is looking well down in Mexico. She was photographed over the weekend at a friend's wedding ... and was nothing but smiles and dance moves despite everything she's going through.

If things unfold the way Lala believes they might come reunion time ... she'll get her chance to set Tom straight -- and maybe even Raq too.

Time will certainly tell. Stay tuned!

Brooke Shields seems overwhelmed by the new documentary about her life ... almost to the point of tears.

We got Brooke at LAX Monday and talked about her upcoming doc, "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" -- the same title as the 1978 film that shot her to stardom and sparked a lot of controversy over her role as a child prostitute.

The documentary -- which will be released on Hulu in April -- chronicles the sexual violence she faced in Hollywood in the '80s/'90s, along with her controversial role in "Pretty Baby." It also touches on her Calvin Klein jeans campaign, which sexualized Brooke when she was just 15.

Brooke seemed almost tearful as she told our photog she's at a place where it feels right to tell her life story. When our photog asked if it was hard to open up, she shot back that life is hard.

Dr. Fauci helped save the day for a woman who went down during a fancy dinner in D.C. -- and someone caught part of the action on camera.

The nation's most prominent doc -- who was at the forefront during COVID -- was one of many bigwigs at the Gridiron Dinner Saturday ... a black-tie affair where journos, politicos and related company gathered to break bread and talk shop.

At some point, a lady in the crowd collapsed ... injuring herself from the fall, so says speechwriter Chandler Dean -- who detailed the scary incident.

He writes, "Last night at the Gridiron Dinner in DC, maybe 10 feet from me and @sarahagruen, a woman collapsed, hit her head on a table, and was laying on the floor without moving."

He goes on to explain ... "People gather trying to help, but no one is sure what to do. Someone goes to find a doctor. They found one."

That man would be Fauci himself, who's pictured crouching down in his tux and attending to the woman in need. It's not quite clear what exactly he did to treat her, but he was certainly by her side ... and it sounds like she was alright in the end.

Dean later clarified she was able to get to her feet and continued on just fine at the dinner, after a little bit of rest. Another speechwriter, Eric Schnure, chimed in as well ... saying Dr. Fauci even posed with the woman afterward and confirmed she was, in fact, OK.

Pauly Shore is pissed off at Jimmy Kimmel making him the butt of a joke during the Oscars ... saying it was gratuitous and hurtful.

The comedian/actor told Page Six how he felt when JK used him as a punchline while celebrating his 2 former costars from 'Encino Man' -- one of Pauly's cult classics from the '90s.

Turns out ... the jab left a wound. PS says, "We love to hate people when they’re on top. People wanted to smash me down and they did. I was always nice to everyone, always cool, I put my heart into all my films."

He adds, "You’re buying and selling a human being. Human beings have feelings, it’s not like selling real estate." He says he's quite happy for Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan ... both of whom acted in 'Encino' and each of whom won their own statuette Sunday night.

Pauly goes on to talk about a comeback of his own and how he wants to get back into acting. At the moment, he's touring and about to hit SXSW soon -- he also teases a possible TV show that might come about that focuses on his upbringing from the '70s and '80s.

It seems having a couple of his old costars swing back into the spotlight has him itching for some of that too. Pauly ends by saying, "I am not going to stop. I’m going to keep going. I know I’m going to get that call, and get that opportunity. That’s what it's about."

While Pauly might be craving mainstream success again ... he's actually been steadily working. Dude's got roles racked up for just about every year going back to the 2010s/'00s ... albeit, none of those projects are as memorable as what he did in the 20th century.

Avril Lavigne got a little feisty with a topless streaker who crashed the Juno Awards ... and the fans all seemed to love it.

The singer-songwriter was onstage introducing fellow musician AP Dhillon at the annual event in Edmonton, Canada Monday night ... when things suddenly took a bizarre turn.

Check out the video ... the woman sauntered onto the stage with no security in sight, prancing around with a message scrawled across her back.

The message read, "SAVE THE GREEN BELT," a reference to a controversial residential development plan spearheaded by the Ontario government.

Avril played it cool at first and ignored the woman, but then decided enough was enough. She turned to the woman and barked, "Get the f**k off. Get the f**k off, b***h."

Security finally showed up and escorted the woman away. It's not clear if she was arrested.

Later on, Avril joked about the strange encounter during her acceptance speech for the TikTok Juno Fan Choice Award. She said, "Now nobody try anything this time or the Canadian's gonna come out of me and I'll f**k a b***h up."

The audience ate it up. One fan told a reporter Avril did "a great job handling" the disruptor. Another person said he got a good chuckle out of it, while acknowledging Avril had initially kept her cool. A third person commended Avril for doing a fantastic job in "fighting through" the disturbance.

It marked the latest drama in Avril's life. As we reported, she broke off her engagement with Mod Sun and is now dating Tyga. Avril and Tyga were recently seen gallivanting around Paris during Fashion Week, locking lips and holding hands. We're told their growing relationship is no publicity stunt, but the two haven't put a boyfriend/girlfriend label on it yet.

"The Bachelorette" alum Tyler Cameron is gettin' candid about a time in his life when he was really in an odd place -- freshly famous, dating one of the world's most popular supermodels ... but also nearly flat broke!!!

Tyler opened up about his money troubles on fellow Bachelor Nation star Jason Tartick's podcast, "Trading Secrets" -- he says he only had a couple hundred bucks while dating Gigi Hadid back in 2019.

He even reveals he'd have to call his dad for extra cash while going on dates in NYC ... adding he didn't even have a credit card at the time, and would just hope for the best.

Tyler and Gigi were first linked shortly after he starred on the 15th season of the reality dating show -- he'd even been nominated for a People's Choice Award, so he clearly had celeb status.

Apparently, you can't have it all, after all.

As we reported, Tyler moved into a swanky condo in NYC shortly after their 2019 split ... talk about poor timing.

The new crib cost him around $7K per month, but the building came with some sweet perks like a bowling alley, golf simulator and even a theater room.

As we now know, Tyler's modeling career started taking off. Good thing, or it sounds like he'd be hitting up his pops to cover that hefty rent.

Sammi 'Sweetheart' Giancola is coming back to "Jersey Shore" -- a plot twist which didn't just come as a shock to the fanbase, but to the cast itself too ... TMZ has learned.

Sources connected to the show tell us Pauly D, JWoww, Snooki, The Situation, Vinny and all the rest of the stars on 'Family Vacation' had no idea Sammi would be showing up to set this past week ... and that they were just as surprised as the rest of the world.

Of course ... the reactions were wild, or so say our sources. We're told it was truly a shocker for everyone involved -- and the raw, jubilant responses it evoked from people were wild ... laughs, tears and everything in between.

All that stuff was captured on camera, and we're told it will all play out on the second half of this season (the 6th, BTW), which is currently filming. No word on an air date.

Sammi's return is a HUGE deal ... seeing how it's been over a decade since she's been on anything "Jersey Shore"-related, and was the only OG cast member not to come back for 'Family Vacation.' The timing of her presence now, though, might make perfect sense.

Fact is, she's got a very rocky history with Ronnie Ortiz-Magro ... whom she dated on and off throughout the original run. Ronnie has since moved on, but the ups and downs of his life continue -- and he stepped away from 'JS' indefinitely 2 years ago.

The dude made a guest appearance last season, but he's not a regular cast member anymore -- and that could be why Sammi agreed to sign on and return.

Now that the whole gang is back together (sans Ronnie), we'll see what sorta shenanigans they get into. Sammi's always been a big personality and is not one to put up with s***.

Harvey Carignan, a mass murderer nicknamed "The Want-Ad Killer," is dead ... TMZ has learned.

Carignan, who used wanted ads to lure unsuspecting women so he could rape and murder them with a hammer, died earlier this month in a Minnesota prison ... with officials at MCF-Oak Park Heights telling us his death was from natural causes.

HC was serving a life sentence after being convicted in 1975 of murdering two women, Eileen Hunley and Katherine Schultz. During the trial, Carignan claimed God had ordered him "to kill whores and harlots" and pled insanity, but he was ultimately found guilty.

In the Hunley murder, she disappeared in Minnesota way back in August 1974 and her body was found 5 weeks later ... her skull imploded by repeated blows to the head. She had also been raped with a tree branch.

Carignan admitted to the Schultz murder, killing her after picking her up in south Minneapolis in Sept. 1974 and driving her to a rural area. Her badly beaten body was found in a cornfield. Like Hunley, her skull was also imploded with a hammer and why he was given the nickname "Harvey the Hammer."

Carignan committed his first murder in 1949, when he was in the Army and stationed in Anchorage, AK. He was convicted of killing 58-year-old Laura Showalter during an attempted rape, and even served part of his sentence at Alcatraz before being released.

While convicted of only 3 murders, Carignan allegedly killed at least 5 women.

"The Last of Us" fans are talking about a new stand-out actor in the season finale -- a giraffe from the Calgary Zoo might be shopping for an agent after making its acting debut!

TMZ has learned the giraffe used in the episode is a 13-year-old bull Masai giraffe who normally resides in the Canadian zoo, where goes by "Nabo" ... and his big moment on camera came in a pivotal scene.

Diehard fans of the post-apocalyptic series will recognize the scene as a recreation from the original video game -- Joel played, by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, stumble upon the beautiful creature, and it becomes a moment of pure bliss.

We're told Nabo is one of many giraffes at the Calgary Zoo, but he is the tallest resident to roam the establishment ... so, maybe that's why he got the nod.

He seemed to be a star in the making because his birth was well-documented and celebrated back in 2015 at the zoo.

Our sources say the scene was actually filmed at the zoo, which makes sense, considering the show is mainly filmed in Alberta, Canada.

We can assume their new costar made it a breeze for Pedro and Bella to get into character for the scene.

Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones ain't happening (at least no time soon), but there's another megafight seemingly on the horizon ... The Predator tells us he's currently discussing a two-fight deal with former heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder!

TMZ Sports talked to 36-year-old Ngannou -- a combat sports free agent after parting ways with the UFC in January -- and now the question is who does Francis fight, in what discipline, and where does it go down.

It's looking more and more like the answer to those questions are 37-year-old Wilder, boxing, and in Africa.

"We are looking into [Deontay Wilder] because he's available. He's ready for that. He's very excited about [a fight with me]. He wants it. So, we are looking into that. That's something I'm very excited about. We even discussed a potential one fight in Africa and one fight somewhere else. Why not even the two fights in Africa?", Francis told us.

Of course, Ngannou and Wilder are arguably the hardest/biggest punchers in all of combat sports.

12 of Francis' 17 wins came by knockout ... and his KO of Alistair Overeem may be the most brutal punch in recent UFC memory.

As for the Bronze Bomber, all but one of his 43 victories came by knockout.

Both guys clearly have the power to end the fight with a single shot ... but Francis tells us it's about more than simply throwing big power punches, and hoping one connects.

"I can knock everybody out. I have to be clear about something. To hit that person you have to get a clear shot which is more about technique and experience I don't have. So, I'm very aware of that aspect," Ngannou says.

"It's not like 'hit me, I hit you, and then we see who goes down.' It's a combat sport. Everybody trying not to get hit. I'm thinking more about the technique or the boxing side of it. The beauty of it. Then at the end, if you get an opportunity to connect then good. If not, I'm still expecting to win that fight in the decision so that's how I'm preparing myself."

There's much more ... we also talked to Francis about Jon Jones calling him a "big ole p***y," the possibility of signing to Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions, and Dana White telling us he believes Ngannou would've been easily handled just like Ciryl Gane was at UFC 285.

Australian–American actor Keir O'Donnell was 26 years old when he was cast as the hilarious Todd Cleary -- the black sheep of the family who enjoys painting semi-nude portraits -- in the classic comedy movie "Wedding Crashers" back in 2005.

Joining Keir in the classic movie was Vince Vaughn as the wise wedding crasher and smooth talker, Jeremy Grey. Owen Wilson as the life of the party and wedding crasher, John Beckwith ... and Rachel McAdams who is a bit lost in life and interested in John, Claire Cleary.

Other big names who starred in the film include Bradley Cooper, Christopher Walken and Isla Fisher.

Ja Morant won't be back on the court anytime soon -- the Memphis Grizzlies superstar just entered a counseling program and won't rejoin the team until further notice.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon reported the news on Monday ... saying Morant is seeking help in Florida and there's no set date for his return to the Grizzlies.

You'll recall ... Morant was suspended after he brandished a gun during his Instagram Live video while at a strip club in Colorado last weekend.

Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins was asked Monday if Morant would be eligible to return for Friday's game against the Spurs ... and he said there are things that have to happen before Morant suits up for the Grizzlies again.

"There are a lot of internal dialogues going on and obviously there’s still things going on at the league level that we’re in communication with," Jenkins said. "Ja’s fully engaged in this process and ready for whatever comes next after these 2 games."

As Morant continues to work his way back, the 23-year-old did get some good news last week ... when the Glendale Police Department in Colorado announced that he won't face any charges over the gun incident.

The famed Tom Brady-autographed U.S. flag at the center of a lawsuit with the Patriots Hall of Fame last year can now be all yours -- if you've got some DEEP pockets.

TMZ Sports has learned ... the stars and stripes that Brady signed and then re-signed following a man's dispute with New England's HOF in 2021 is going up for sale on eBay later this month -- and its starting price tag is $299,999.

Unclear what it's ultimately expected to sell for ... but we're told the profits will go to a good cause nonetheless.

Dan Vitale -- the owner of the flag who feuded with Patriots officials after he alleged they ruined the item after putting it on display at the team's HOF -- is donating a portion of the proceeds to the Behavioral Health and Developmental Services of Strafford County, Inc. -- a non-profit whose goal is to help those with autism. Vitale says the rest of the funds will go into a trust for his daughter, who has autism.

When it eventually sells, the new owner of the flag will be getting a sweet piece of Brady memorabilia -- one that has quite the story attached to it too.

As we reported, it initially flew over Foxboro Stadium during a New England vs Miami game in '01 -- the same year Brady first took over as Patriots starter. Brady then signed it years later.

Vitale ultimately bought it and handed it off to the Pats Hall of Fame to display it -- but he claims officials there caused the signature to fade when they improperly took care of it. He sued in 2022, alleging their mistakes decreased the value of the piece by $1 million.

Brady, though, came to the rescue ... re-signing it in big, black ink following the Buccaneers vs. Seahawks game last year. Vitale said he was stoked with the new signature -- and believed it was worth over $1 mil again.

“While the flag holds a lot of value to me personally," Vitale said, "I could not be more thrilled to auction it on eBay so another collector can own this rare piece of sports history and in the process, support those with autism -- including my youngest daughter.”

Bidding on the item begins on March 23 ... and will end on April 1.

Good luck!!!