What had been scheduled to be a sunset service for Michael Jackson at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale became a nighttime gathering when Jackson's family got off to a late start leaving their Encino compound this evening.
As about 200 friends waited, the Jackson family, ferried into the park in a fleet of 26 vehicles, took their places in the front rows of white folding chairs set up outside in the tree-dappled, verdant cemetery park.
The Jackson brothers in black suits and red ties filed past a portrait of Michael, a confident smile on his face. His children took their places as well. A bespectacled Paris Jackson, his young daughter, in a dark dress, her long hair pulled back in a pony tail, watched as other family members took their seats.
Under a tight cordon of security, they had all gathered for the final leg of the pop singer's odyssey from death to interment on a hot night exactly 10 weeks after he was found dead.
Among the mourners were many of the touchstones of his life: Elizabeth Taylor — who arrived in a Maybach; former child star actor Macaulay Culkin; lawyer Thomas A. Mesereau, who successfully defended Jackson from sexual abuse charges; and choreographer Kenny Ortega, who was working on Jackson’s final tour show. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, former child actor Corey Haim, baseball player Barry Bonds, Marlon Brando’s son Miko and comic Chris Tucker also were there.
As dusk turned to night, a Halloween-orange moon hung in the sky, appropriate for the pop singer whose spooky “Thriller” song and video is legendary in the annals of pop music.
Glendale police blocked off streets around the 300-acre cemetery, and the sprinkling of fans who showed up were relegated to standing behind barricades blocks away. A dozen fans held up a banner reading “King of Pop Michael Jackson Gone Too Soon.”
Jackson is to be interred in a crypt in Holly Terrace, one of 11 halls in the Great Mausoleum, Forest Lawn’s vast granite-and-marble-filled palazzo that serves as the star-studded resting place of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and other screen legends.
The outdoor service will move into Holly Terrace for a cryptside finale.
The Jackson estate is footing the bill for the service, which has been called by a lawyer for the estate “extraordinary” but worth paying. At least $125,000 will go to cover the Glendale Police Department’s and Glendale city’s expenses — and that’s just a fraction of the costs associated with the service. The bulk of the expenses will go to Forest Lawn.
—Chris Lee and Carla Hall
Photo: Michael Jackson's brothers wore sunglasses and matching red ties to the pop singer's burial service at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale.
Credit: Pool photo