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Most Valuable Prospects 12 is slated to go down on Friday ... and TMZ Sports has already done the heavy lifting for anyone wanting to track down the promotion's newest ring girl -- her name is Marissa Ayers, and we talked to her ahead of her big debut!!

We chopped it up with the MVP newbie and fellow models Delia Sylvain and Rapha Milagres ahead of fight night in Orlando ... and the rookie opened up on how she ended up in the family.

It turns out Rapha played a role in getting the Georgia native and Alabama student on board ... and after a few convos, she was handed her sparkly blue outfit and got to work as an MVP event model.

Mark Geragos won't answer the question -- Is he a member of Diddy's defense team? -- and it made for some lively discussion on TMZ's new Tubi weekly show ... "TMZ Presents: United States V. Sean Combs: Inside the Diddy Trial."

Geragos joined Nancy Grace, Ashleigh Banfield and Eboni K. Williams, when Harvey pressed him on his association with Diddy. It's true, Geragos has repped Diddy on various legal issues in the past, but the question now is whether he's part of the current defense team.

Geragos tried to skirt the issue, but then TMZ producer Brian Andrews popped up and laid out what he saw in the courthouse -- Geragos sitting behind the defense team and passing notes to Diddy's chief lawyers Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos (Mark's daughter), Geragos chatting it up with Diddy's lawyer during lunch breaks in the courthouse cafeteria, and Geragos coming out of the judge's chambers as Agnifilo had his arm around Mark's shoulder.

The former Indiana teacher charged with sexually abusing multiple underage children while they wore "Scream" masks has a big adjustment to make behind bars ... no more sex!!!

Brittany Fortinberry is being held at the Morgan County Jail in Martinsville, IN and there's no way she's doing the nasty ... because there are no conjugal visits, no access to porn, and no sexually explicit material -- and she's all alone in her cell.

A rep for the jail tells us Fortinberry is in general population and she has a cell all to herself, despite each room allowing for 3 inmates. It's just her and a metal bunk, sink fixture, towel hooks, toilet, mirror and a night light.

Farrah Abraham and Jenelle Evans are finally ready to let bygones be bygones after years locked in a bitter feud ... and they sealed the decision over Mexican food in Las Vegas.

The "Teen Mom" alums made nice and let go of the bitterness over grub Thursday night at Lucia -- a restaurant at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

And the pair did not dine alone ... they were also joined by fellow "Teen Mom" star Ashley Jones, who also formerly feuded with Farrah, and just like Jenelle, she's recently single.

L.A. Rams star Quentin Lake is passing along some advice to Shedeur Sanders ... and given how similar the guys' NFL draft experiences were -- Deion's son would be wise to listen up.

The 26-year-old defensive back delivered a pump-up speech of sorts to the Cleveland Browns rookie just ahead of his first-ever pro practice on Friday ... and Lake made it clear, Sanders can find success as a late-round pick with a famous dad, just as he once did.

Lake -- the son of former All-Pro Carnell Lake -- went in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft ... but he was able to go on to become a team captain and one of his squad's best players.

Justin Baldoni's lawyer has a challenge for Blake Lively ... he says her testimony should be live-streamed in the world's most famous arena -- Madison Square Garden!!!

Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, tells TMZ ... "If Blake Lively is really serious about testifying for the world to see, let's live stream it in Madison Square Garden and give the money to the domestic violence survivors."

Freedman's challenge comes in response to Blake's lawyers revealing she absolutely plans to take the stand if their lawsuit actually makes it to trial ... and his idea isn't going over so well in Blake's camp.

Federal prosecutors are taking a big gamble with one of their star witnesses in Diddy's sex trafficking trial, because the woman they call "Victim 3" has always made it clear she does NOT want to testify ... TMZ has learned.

During jury selection this week, lead prosecutor Maurene Comey admitted the feds do not know whether the alleged victim -- one of Diddy's ex-girlfriends -- intends to appear in court to testify against him. Comey said the woman does not live locally, there's an issue getting in touch with her attorney ... and she may not even show up to court despite a subpoena.

Our sources with direct knowledge say the woman has never cooperated with prosecutors, and never gave them an indication she would be willing to take the stand during the trial.

Miley Cyrus is in a good place with her father ... because we're told she's been spending time recently with Billy Ray.

Sources close to the Cyrus family tell TMZ ... Miley and Billy have a good relationship and they have been hanging out.

There were a bunch of media reports last year speculating things were icy between them -- mostly after Miley snubbed Billy Ray in an acceptance speech at the Grammys -- but we're told the two have maintained a good relationship over the years and see each other in person from time to time.

UNLV football player Ben Christman's cause of death has been revealed ... with officials stating the 21-year-old passed away naturally.

The Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner shared the results with TMZ Sports on Thursday ... which determined he died from cardiac arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy.

Cardiac arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat -- either too fast or too slow -- and cardiomyopathy is a disease that impacts the heart muscle.

Rolly Romero's making it clear it's totally fine for men to cry ... and he tells TMZ Sports anyone who's making fun of Ryan Garcia for his emotional outburst after their fight last week can go pound sand.

The star boxer -- who upset Garcia in Times Square on May 2 -- passionately defended his opponent while out in L.A. on Wednesday ... explaining he, too, had a big cry following their tilt.

"It's OK for men to cry, bruh," Romero said ... adding, "It just shows we're human."

The former Indiana teacher charged with sexually abusing multiple underage children while they wore "Scream" masks is setting the stage for claiming she wasn't in her right mind when she allegedly committed the acts.

Brittany Fortinberry's lawyer, Stephen Gray, filed a notice with the court to hire several mental health professionals to give his client a psychiatric evaluation.

Gray says he wants to see if Fortinberry suffers from a mental disease or defect, which "prevented her from appreciating the wrongfulness of the conduct the time of the offense."

Smokey Robinson's camp says the sexual assault lawsuit filed by 4 former housekeepers is filled with lies, and purely designed to squeeze money out of the Motown legend.

Robinson's attorney Christopher Frost tells TMZ ... "As this case progresses, the evidence (the crucial element that guides us) will show that this is simply an ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon -- $50 million, to be exact."

He goes on to call out the plaintiffs and their lawyers, saying, "Through this process we have seen the bizarre theatrics of yesterday's news conference, as the plaintiffs' attorneys outlined vile, false allegations against Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, trying to enlist the public as an unwitting participant in the media circus they are trying to create."

The guy arrested for crashing his car onto Jennifer Aniston's Bel-Air property is now facing felony charges for stalking her for several years.

L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Wednesday he'd slapped Jimmy Wayne Carwyle with one count of felony stalking and one count of felony vandalism ... and said the suspect would be in court Thursday for his arraignment.

TMZ broke the story ... LAPD was digging into 48-year-old Carwyle's social media after finding several rambling posts that mentioned Jennifer -- and, in one, he actually referred to her as his bride.

Animal rights activist Varun Virlan says he's horrified at a video that has gone viral -- showing a woman seasoning and then air-frying two crabs while they were still alive!

ICYMI ... a TikToker posted a cooking video last week showing how she prepared a dish featuring blue crabs -- she seasons some potatoes and corn, then the live crustaceans themselves, before placing them, still alive, in a glass-bottom air-fryer and cooking them for 15 minutes, with the camera showing their demise.

We spoke to the Virlan, the digital media director of Animal Save Movement, who says videos like these are exactly the problem with how crabs are excluded from being considered protected animals -- like dogs, cats, horses -- and are seen more like vegetables than animals.

The feds would probably say Luigi Mangione got his just desserts on his birthday -- 'cause he had to nosh on some crappy prison food!!!

TMZ obtained a copy of Luigi's breakfast, lunch and dinner menus for his 27th birthday Tuesday, while locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

And while much of the food is the type of stuff we all eat ...it all seems kind of nasty when you factor in the whole jailhouse aspect.

Popular conservative commentator Michael Knowles says the Supreme Court upholding President Donald Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military is a smart move ... 'cause he thinks it's a serious disease that affects their combat readiness.

We spoke with Knowles -- a longtime podcast host at Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire -- came by "TMZ Live" Wednesday to discuss the court's ruling this week ... explaining he's all for it because mental health issues in the trans community prevent them from being effective soldiers.

Knowles references studies showing higher rates of chronic disease among members of the trans community ... and adds Americans voted for Trump fully knowing this was something he was going to do, thereby cosigning it.