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Convicted killer Kenneth Eugene Smith violently convulsed during his nitrogen gas execution for 4 painfully long minutes, and the founder of a leading euthanasia group says he knew it wouldn't go smoothly when he previewed the prison set-up.

Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder of pro-euthanasia group "Exit International", spoke to "TMZ Live" Friday about the first-ever nitrogen gas execution ... saying he was concerned to see a gas mask set-up for Smith's Thursday night execution at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.

He tells us he's long helped people wanting to end their lives with nitrogen in a quick, peaceful, and reliable way -- but ditched face masks 15 years earlier, because he found them to be unreliable and dangerous.

In layman's terms ... he says if the mask loses its seal on someone's face it alters the amount of air flowing in and slows the process, potentially leading to muscle convulsions.

Also, he tells us there was the obvious factor of Smith fighting his own death, which made his execution particularly excruciating.

Nitschke says when people choose to die on their own terms via nitrogen gas, they're encouraged to take long, deep breaths to make it quick -- but Smith, who he met in the prison during his visit -- made it clear he didn't want to die, took short shallow breaths, which added to his suffering.

Nitschke says he warned prison officials they were going about his execution the wrong way, but, clearly, that fell on deaf ears.

Smith became the first-ever inmate to be put to death utilizing nitrogen hypoxia ... basically, suffocating him.

The Ferrari Michael B. Jordan crashed in a Hollywood street race is on the open market, but it's an "as is" situation ... and the sports car is still a mangled mess.

The "Creed" star's ride is being auctioned off to the highest bidder ... and the minimum sale price is $58,000.

Remember ... Michael wrecked his blue 2021 Ferrari 812 back in December ... video shows him racing another Ferrari down Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, with MBJ ultimately crashing his whip into a parked KIA.

Michael ended up being the subject of a police investigation into the incident, but, as we reported, the case has been closed and he won't face any criminal repercussions.

The damage on the Ferrari looks the same as the night of the crash ... so it seems there haven't been any repairs made.

If $58,000 -- at a minimum -- sounds steep for a wrecked sports car, you should keep in mind that exotic ride costs about $400K out of the showroom.

Michael's not the one auctioning off the car here though ... the owner is listed as a Cincinnati insurance company, which clearly took ownership after the MBJ wrecked it.

The Ferrari shows a salvage certificate was issued Dec. 2, the same date as the crash, and the auction website is exclusively for salvaged cars.

Ben Shapiro is diving headfirst into the rap game -- he's got a new single and an accompanying music video, and it's doing numbers ... this despite some poor reactions.

The famous conservative talk show host and editor of The Daily Wire -- who's known for his skill on a mic, but not in the MC capacity -- was featured on wrestler-turned-rapper Tom MacDonald's new single ... supplying the guest verse with bars!

Their track together is called "Facts" ... and Ben's 16 takes aim at actual rappers in the game, like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion ... among others. He's wearing a hoodie in this thing as he raps about making money off compound interest, all while his haters live with their parents. Yeah, it's classic Shapiro ... dude loves to flex his intellect.

Anyway, the song's pretty polarizing ... and not just because of the lyrical content, which references culture wars and defunding the police. In terms of listen-ability, it's ... jarring.

As you can imagine -- Ben himself is controversial, and has a ton of haters too ... so, it's no surprise the track's generating a ton of bad reviews on social media right now, with lotsa folks calling it cringe, uncool, goofy and a contender for the worst verse of all time.

In his rap, Ben calls on his supporters to download and stream the song ... and that looks like what's going on, because it's doing pretty well on the music charts. So ... a win?

'Facts' is currently No. 2 on iTunes, between Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake ... and Ben's doing an early victory lap on social media ... taking more shots at Nicki along the way.

Skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin was airlifted to a hospital after crashing in a World Cup downhill run on Friday ... but, thankfully, she avoided serious injury.

The scary incident happened when Shiffrin -- who holds the record with 95 World Cup wins -- was going at high speeds down the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

In footage of the run, Shiffrin is shown losing control while attempting to land a jump about 20 seconds into her race ... ultimately crashing into the safety barriers.

The 28-year-old was transported to a nearby hospital via medical helicopter to evaluate her leg injury ... and it sounds like she escaped the incident without any serious issue.

U.S. team coach Paul Kristofic spoke about MS' status with the AP ... saying, "She's positive and in a certain way relieved because it could have been worse. But she’s pretty sore, as you are for most speed crashes. But she was quite upbeat about things."

Shiffrin thanked her fans for showing love after her crash ... and gave her team a shout-out for finishing top 20 in the race.

"Thank you everyone for your support and well wishes. At this point I’m just taking it day by day, and I’ll share more information or updates as I know more," Shiffrin said on Instagram.

"Very thankful it’s not worse, but I’m pretty sore at the moment."

Shiffrin will sit out Saturday and Sunday's downhill events in Cortina ... and her return to the slopes is unknown at this time.

"I won’t be skiing the rest of this weekend, and I won’t be skiing in Kronplatz," Shiffrin said.

"Beyond that, it’s quite hard to say right now. Need a little time to process with my team and see how everything is feeling in the coming days! Thank you all!🙏"

The crash comes shortly after Shiffrin's boyfriend -- Norweigan skier Aleksander Kilde -- had a brutal tumble at a World Cup event ... resulting in multiple injuries and an urgent surgery.

Dolvett Quince -- of 'Biggest Loser' fame -- is being dragged to court by his ex-wife ... 'cause she says he owes her a fat stack of cash, and she wants to collect.

According to new legal documents, obtained by TMZ, the famed TV trainer Dolvett's ex, Amanda Quince, claims he's falling way behind on spousal support -- to the tune of 5 figures, in fact. Amanda claims Dolvett is supposed to pay her $2,500 on the first of every month ... but she says the money isn't flowing her way of late.

In the docs, Amanda says Dolvett now owes her $10,000 because of this ... explaining that over the past six months or so, he's only given her $5,000 of the $15,000 he was supposed to shell out.

Amanda claims Dolvett has the money ... she says he's making upwards of $35,000 a month and has no problem shelling out over $8,300 for his Santa Monica penthouse. If he can afford that, she's questioning why he can't cover the money he's allegedly behind on.

Probably worth noting -- Dolvett and Amanda have been divorced since January 2023 ... and she says he's given her hardly any financial support since their marriage ended, this despite the fact that he's supposed to. Amanda claims she's now unemployed and barely scraping by as she navigates a new country. She's asking a court to make him pay her what she says he owes.

Tyreek Hill's circle is a lot smaller now -- 'cause the Miami Dolphins superstar said he had to fire a bunch of people off his team this week ... including the "f***ing bonehead" who filed divorce documents without his approval.

Hill and Keeta Vaccaro's union appeared to be coming to an end after just a few months ... when Broward County records in Florida showed the Super Bowl champ submitted the petition for the dissolution of his marriage -- which he later refuted.

The 29-year-old receiver cleared the air on a Twitch stream Thursday night ... saying he never gave his people the green light to file the papers.

"I just gotta say that it sucks that A, yeah, a lot of our stuff is public record," Hill said. "But behind closed doors, a lot of people got fired, too, for just doing things without a 'yes.'"

"It sucks that me and my wife gotta go through that. Like yeah, public records says it and right now we're in a spot of fixing it -- I fired the f***ing bonehead that did that mistake. Now it sucks."

Hill explained he had to confront his wife over the mishap ... saying they have another vacation planned too, so he wanted to make sure everything was good between them.

The two later shut down any speculation of a split ... posing together hours after the reports went public.

Mary J. Blige shocked Lovers and Friends festival fans just by announcing yesterday she would NOT be performing, and her name was put on the flyer by accident -- but lo and behold, she's back!

On Friday, MJB was re-added to the lineup, and it appears the "error" was really about where she'd been placed on the promotional flyer -- because she's been bumped up several slots to reflect her headliner status ... and she's now happily posting about the event.

Shortly after the changes, Mary posted a smirking emoji and money bag on her IG -- so, basically, she's chuckling all the way to the bank.

Lovers and Friends had originally squashed MJB's name in between the likes of Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, Ashanti and several other recognizable music legends.

The updated artwork moves her billing up to the top of the third column, now dwarfing Gwen Stefani, Nelly Furtado, Ciara and more.

Essentially, on the day Lovers and Friends tickets went on sale, the event's promoter had to bow to the Queen of Hip Hop Soul.

Soooo .... let's get crunk, 'cause Mary's back!!!

Hugh Hefner's ex-wife Kimberly is defending the Playboy founder against an onslaught from his widow Crystal ... 'cause Kim suggests Crystal's just bashing Hef to make a buck.

Kimberly -- who was married to Hef from 1989 to 2010 and had two kids with him -- tells TMZ ... Crystal, in her mind, has no credibility and goes on to claim it was actually her who was exploiting Hef while he was still alive, not the other way around.

As we've reported ... Crystal has a new memoir out about her marriage to Hef and their life at the Playboy Mansion, and she's taken a ton of shots at both ... ripping his bedroom skills, calling their relationship toxic and backward and saying she felt trapped/hypnotized.

But Kimberly's firing back on behalf of her ex-hubby, saying ... "As a few people speak their version of their idea of events in hopes of riding a wave of headline relevance, and making a quick buck, we should all ask ourselves whether we want to live in an environment where people refuse to take accountability and use words loosely like 'force' and 'survive' to describe choices they made willingly at a certain point in their own lives." Oof, talk about harsh!

The way Kimberly sees it ... Crystal wasn't forced into marrying Hef or living at the Playboy Mansion Crystal now despises. Kimberly tells us Crystal made choices that gave her "notoriety, opportunity, and money."

Now that Crystal seems to have turned on Hef, who has been dead since 2017, Kimberly adds ... "We should be wary of those who try to destroy things because they are no longer benefiting from them."

Remember ... Crystal's also told us she felt like she lost herself in her marriage with Hugh,  and she's said she wants to drop his famous last name because it's not clear if it's helping or hurting her these days.

Kimberly says it's not fair Hef's not here to defend himself ... praising him as a "pioneer of free thought and expression" and a "leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time, advocating for free speech, integrity, sexual freedoms, and civil rights."

Joseline Hernandez has finally learned her fate following that wild 2023 fight backstage at a concert in Miami ... the reality star will have to maneuver carefully now that she's been sentenced to two years probation.

TMZ Hip Hop obtained docs of Joseline's plea deal that lays out the terms of her sentence ... she ended up pleading no contest to a slew of charges, including resisting an officer with violence, battery on a law enforcement officer, and more after prosecutors say she hit the officers trying to keep her from pummeling Lex.

The Love & Hip Hop: Miami star will now be subjected to random drug testing and will have to enroll in a 29-week batterer's intervention program class online to learn how to better de-escalate situations.

Joseline is also barred from having contact with the victim and the victim's family ... and will have to write a letter of apology to the off to the deputies involved in her arrest.

As we reported, Joseline grew enraged after Floyd Mayweather and John Gotti III's exhibition bout and was basically accused of creating her own boxing match afterward with repeated attacks to Lex's noggin.

A sexual assault lawsuit against Trey Songz has been dismissed ... with the judge saying the woman never responded to Songz's motion to dismiss, so her complaint is outta here.

Here's the deal ... the singer-songwriter was originally sued back in June by an unnamed woman for allegedly exposing her breast at a Connecticut casino back in 2013.

This is an allegation she initially floated in 2022 through a demand letter to him, but didn't officially sue until Summer 2023. In her original demand letter, she was asking for north of $5 million to settle it out of court -- but he never played ball, so she ended up suing civilly.

You'll recall ... this woman -- who filed as a Jane Doe in her suit -- claimed Songz had pulled out her breast from her bathing suit top during a "Foxwoods Liquid Sundays with Trey Songz" event and even claimed there was video evidence to back up her claim.

She alleged it was done without her permission, and that it amounted to sexual assault -- something Trey and his team had been vehemently denying from the very beginning.

Anyway, this lady amended the original complaint in July -- and then again in September before Songz filed a motion to dismiss saying the statute of limitations barred her claim ... which the judge granted, although he gave her another chance to amend it a 3rd time.

She did exactly that, but her renewed claims looked incredibly similar to the earlier ones ... prompting Songz to file another motion to dismiss. That was back on December 29 when he did that ... and apparently, Doe never responded to Songz's motion to dismiss this time.

Blueface still has a little ways to go for his current jail sentence, but there's a good chance Chrisean Rock will be waiting at home for him when he comes back!!!

On Friday, Chrisean burst onto IG with a newfound faith in the father of her baby boy -- she updated her profile pic with one of the "Thotiana" rapper's mugshots but more shockingly, announced she was moving back into one of his houses!!!

Fans were confused and displeased ... the last time these 2 were spotted publicly, they both had conflicting stories but left every indication they had a fight, and a very bloody one at that!!!

She also posted a pair of new pics with their kid, but went out of her way to show support for Blue by making sure her "Jonathan" signature face tat was visible.

TMZ Hip Hop broke the story ... Blueface is slated to be behind bars through Summer '24 but his manager, Wack 100, is pushing for an earlier release.

12:34 PM PT -- Alyssa Milano took to Twitter/X to address the backlash over the GoFundMe she set up to help fund her son's baseball team saying ... “I’m getting media inquiries about whether I have financially contributed to my son’s baseball team."

Alyssa continued, "I’ve paid for uniforms for the entire team and coaches, thrown bday parties and sponsor any kid who can’t afford monthly dues. The kids also do fundraising themselves—car washes, movie nights, and many other fun things!"

"Thank you to all who have contributed to the gofundme! You’ve made things easier for these boys and their families.”

Alyssa Milano asked her many followers/fans to chip in for her son's youth baseball trip -- and because she's perceived as incredibly wealthy ... she's getting dragged through the coals.

The actress posted a link to a GoFundMe account that she and her husband, David Bugliari, started on behalf of their kid's 12U squad ... which she calls a travel fund that'll help the boys get to Cooperstown for a big baseball tournament, plus other expenses.

She wrote, "My son’s baseball team is raising money for their Cooperstown trip. Any amount would be so greatly appreciated. You can read more about the team and make a donation here" ... after which, she linked to the GFM page, which has a goal of raising $10,000.

The cash, the page says, will go toward travel costs, uniforms and family dues for players -- and it benefits the whole team, of course ... not just Alyssa's son. Still, the internet's pissed.

You can hop into the "Alyssa Milano" trend this AM to get a sense of what the hell everyone's so angry about because of this -- but it's pretty straight-forward ... people are complaining that AM is a huge star, who's presumably loaded and who can afford this with the snap of her finger. So ... why is she going around soliciting donations like a normie???

As you can imagine, the jokes are flying at Alyssa's expense -- but a lot of folks are genuinely outraged that she'd try to fundraise considering her position. Even more interesting is the fact that in the list of visible donors, none appear to feature her name.

She hasn't addressed all the hand-wringing just yet -- but TBH, this feels like a case of people making assumptions about her on a number of fronts ... and we'll just leave it at that.

Travis Kelce and Chiefs Kingdom won't like this ...

An extremely talented Baltimore fan is hoping to bring some good Taylor Swift juju to his favorite team ... by painting a mural of the pop star decked out in a Lamar Jackson jersey!!

The artist goes by dlordink on social media ... and at some point, after it was revealed the Ravens would take on the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game this weekend, he got the idea to try to use Swift's good luck powers for his squad.

The painter threw up the artwork at Unlimited Art Studio in Havre de Grace, Md. ... and he said on his TikTok page he and another designer spent three hours perfecting it.

Afterward, he was clearly pleased with how it all turned out ... writing in a caption on a pic of the wall, "Tag @taylorswift & @killatrav in the comments and let them know how good she looks in @new_era8 @ravens purple."

Caroline Manzo is suing Bravo over something that happened between her and Brandi Glanville during a 'Housewives' spinoff that got raunchy ... which CM says crossed the line.

The 'RHONJ' star just filed against the network -- plus a ton of other production companies/studios involved in making 'Housewives' -- over an incident she claims took place in Jan. 2023 out in Morocco ... where she says they were attempting to film for a show called "Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip."

Long story short, this is a mish-mash of 'Housewives' from different shows -- and they get them all together for a season of drama while Bravo and co. films them vacationing.

However ... in the docs, obtained by TMZ, Caroline alleges that things went too far between herself and Brandi ('RHOBH') one evening -- during which she claims she was sexually harassed by BG after producers supplied castmates with alcohol to promote more outrageous behavior for the show.

Basically, CM claims Brandi was coming on to her in their rental house -- and alleges she even forced herself onto Caroline and kissed her without consent ... going on to claim that Brandi continued to paw at her and "mount" her on a couch, making for a very awkward interaction.

While Caroline most certainly has issues with what she claims Brandi did in the moment -- she's not suing her in this suit ... instead, she's suing Bravo -- alleging that showrunners and producers were responsible for creating/fostering a drunken environment that puts cast members at risk for things like this to happen.

In fact, Brandi came out after the fact -- this season hasn't aired yet BTW -- saying, more or less, the same thing on Twitter ... pinning the whole thing on producers and alleging that they really push for this type of over-the-top behavior to stir up drama in hopes of ratings.

Brandi -- who's been part of other 'Girls Trip' seasons for Bravo -- even claimed online a while back that producers strongly encouraged cast members to get drunk with excessive alcohol -- and Caroline, too, alleges that in her lawsuit here. She also describes what allegedly happened between her and Brandi as triggering trauma she says she experienced as a little girl ... when she says she was sexually assaulted at the young age of 7.

Now, she's suing Bravo for negligence, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and more. Of course, Caroline is seeking major damages here.

Jillian Michaels and Dr. Terry Dubrow have been trading shots over Ozempic lately -- and the good doc is the latest to fire back ... telling us she should stay in her lane cause she has no proper medical credentials.

We got the "Botched" star outside Craig's Thursday ... and he doubles down on his initial claims against her ... practically shouting from the rooftops this time that her career as a personal trainer doesn't permit her to dish out medical advice.

Despite publicly discrediting her PT career yet again, he appears to extend an olive branch ... saying she's actually great at her job -- but it's a back-handed compliment ... 'cause he says she still doesn't have medical validation to influence others against weight loss drugs.

Now, Terry does offer her a solution if she feels an absolute need to continue doing so -- Take her MCAT and go to med school. Savage!

He also says the article Jillian cited in which he appeared to agree with her anti-Ozempic stance was taken out of context and doesn't hold up her argument -- explaining he was only being interviewed about the dangers of Ozempic ... hence why he was discussing it's side effects.

That's not all ... TD also ain't here for Jillian's claims she's the utmost authority on weight loss ... suggesting if that was the case, then she'd already be aware that diet and exercise alone doesn't cut it when tackling the obesity problem.

He says bottom line, any medication can be dangerous, but drugs like Ozempic are saving lives -- so Jillian needs to mind her own business and leave the advice to those with qualifications.

For good measure, the doc's wife, Heather Dubrow, jumps in ... saying she's known him for 30 years and he never changes his mind on anything -- an apparent shot at JM to back down and accept defeat.

Bad Bunny's dropping knowledge on the next generation -- not about music, but about business ... as he surprised a class full of college kids in South Florida.

The Puerto Rican singer-songwriter pulled up to Florida International University -- dapping up his friend and collaborator, Miami hospitality mogul David Grutman, who was leading a lecture to about 400 students.

Benito's certainly a master of disguise -- walking through the crowded lecture hall with a bandana and sunglasses covering most of his face.

Some students seemed to recognize him before the makeshift mask came off with scattered screams coming out of the crowd, but a clear majority of the future entrepreneurs couldn't figure it out until the 29-year-old revealed his face.

After giving the crowd time to freak out, naturally, Bunny admitted he felt more comfortable speaking in Spanish, and a student happily agreed to translate for him.

As Grutman spoke about his success opening a new Miami restaurant, purely because he'd tied it to one of the singer's stadium shows ... BB jumped in to add something, but then had to give his translator an assist in saying something in Spanish, 'cause she was at a loss for words.

The moment got a lot of laughs and the impromptu translator took it in stride -- it's hard to get upset when you're having a moment with one of the biggest artists in the world.

All told, The David Grutman Experience: The Class at Florida International University lasted about an hour and included a story about how DG introduced Bunny to superstar Drake.

It's good to be connected, as Grutman's students learned firsthand from Prof. Bunny!!!