Singer Michael Jackson FINALLY laid rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery

[sara1981]

Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin Arrive for Michael Jackson Funeral
Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin Arrive for Michael Jackson Funeral - Michael Jackson : People.com

They came for an intimate ceremony for a superstar: Lisa Marie Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin, Chris Tucker and Mila Kunis arrived at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif., on Thursday for the funeral for Michael Jackson.

As night fell, the friends of the King of Pop took their seats under Southern California skies still brown from mountain brush fires. While awaiting Jackson’s family to arrive, the friends signed a guest book and leafed through a nine-page invitation with photos of Jackson through the years.

Jackson, who died June 25 at age 50, will be interred in Forest Lawn's Grand Mausoleum, the final resting place for Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow and Red Skelton. The building is patterned on 13th Century Italian architecture, with the walls and floors of each crypt constructed of reinforced concrete.

Jackson’s estate will pay for the small but expensive funeral, which took place under heavy security. "The expenses will be extraordinary, but Michael Jackson was extraordinary," Jeryll Cohen, an attorney for the singer's estate, said Wednesday at a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court dealing with the funeral costs.

Jackson's brother Marlon has said that Michael's three children have each written letters to their father that will lie with him alongside one of his signature white gloves. The notes by Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7, read: "Daddy, we love you, we miss you,"

 

[sara1981]

update:

Dead stars and classic art will surround Michael Jackson
Dead stars and classic art will surround Michael Jackson - CNN.com

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Seventy days after his sudden death, Michael Jackson will be interred in what may or may not be his final resting place Thursday evening.

Only his family and closest friends will attend the private burial starting at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET) inside the ornate Great Mausoleum on the grounds of Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.

They'll then drive to an Italian restaurant eight miles away in Pasadena, California for "a time of celebration," the nine-page engraved invitation said.

The first page inside the invitation holds a quote from "Dancing the Dream," a book of essays and poems published by Jackson in 1992:

"If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."

The news media -- which have closely covered every aspect of Jackson's death -- will be kept at a distance, with their cameras no closer than the cemetery's main gate. The family will provide a limited video feed that will only show mourners arriving.

Little is known about the planned ceremony, though CNN has confirmed that singer Gladys Knight -- a longtime friend to Jackson -- will perform. Her song has not been disclosed.

The massive mausoleum, which is normally open to tourists, was closed Wednesday as preparations were completed for the funeral. A security guard blocking its entrance said it would reopen to the public on Friday.

Fans of Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and dozens of other celebrities buried on the grounds have flocked to Forest Lawn-Glendale for decades, but Jackson may outdraw them all.

It is unclear how close tourists will be allowed to Jackson's resting place. Security guards -- aided by cameras -- keep a constant vigil over the graves and crypts, which are surrounded by a world-class collection of art and architecture.

The Forest Lawn Web site boasts that the mausoleum, which draws its architectural inspiration from the Campo Santo in Italy, "has been called the "New World's Westminster Abbey" by Time Magazine.

Visitors will see "exact replicas of Michelangelo's greatest works such as David, Moses, and La Pieta" and "Leonardo da Vinci's immortal Last Supper re-created in brilliant stained glass; two of the world's largest paintings," the Web site says.

Jackson's burial has been delayed by division among Jackson family members, though it was matriarch Katherine Jackson who would make the final decision, brother Jermaine Jackson recently told CNN.

He preferred to see his youngest brother laid to rest at his former Neverland Ranch home, north of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara County, California.

That idea was complicated by neighbors who vowed to oppose allowing a grave in the rural area -- and by Jackson family members who said the singer would not want to return to the home where he faced child molestation charges, of which he was ultimately acquitted.

The mystery of where Michael Jackson would be buried became a media obsession in the weeks after his death.

After his body was loaded onto a helicopter at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center hours following his June 25 death, it stayed in the custody of the Los Angeles County coroner for an autopsy.

It was only later disclosed that Jackson's corpse was kept in a refrigerated room at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn cemetery until his casket was carried by motorcade to downtown Los Angeles for a public memorial service in the Staples Center arena.

Again, speculation about Jackson's whereabouts grew when the media lost track of his casket after his brothers carried it out of sight inside the arena. Though the family has not publicly confirmed where the body was taken, most reports placed it back at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn while awaiting his family's decision.

Though Thursday's interment may settle one Michael Jackson mystery, a more serious one remains. The coroner announced last week that he had ruled Jackson's death a homicide. A summary of the coroner's report said the anesthetic propofol and the sedative lorazepam were the primary drugs responsible for the singer's death.

Los Angeles police detectives have not concluded their criminal investigation and no one has been charged.

 

[sara1981]

update:

Mourners Gather for Jackson's Funeral
Mourners Gather for Jackson's Funeral - CBS News

Elizabeth Taylor, Barry Bonds and other mourners are gathering for Michael Jackson's funeral, slowly filling rows of white chairs placed outside the mausoleum where the King of Pop will be entombed.

With temperatures hovering at an oppressive 90 degrees in the early evening Thursday, black-garbed mourners fanned themselves with programs for the service at Forest Lawn Glendale as they waited for it to start. Michael Jackson's family arrived more than an hour late.

Parents Joe and Katherine Jackson and the singer's children, 12-year-old Prince Michael, 10-year-old Paris Michael and 7-year-old Prince Michael II, known as Blanket, were in the front rows for the service.

A police escort had ushered the family's motorcade of 31 cars, including Rolls-Royces and Cadillacs, from Encino to Forest Lawn, with the hearse bearing Jackson's body at the end.

A large, inflated production light, the type used in film and television production, and a boom camera hung over the seating area placed in front of the grand marble mausoleum. The equipment raised the possibility the footage would be used for the Jackson documentary "This Is It."

Jackson will share eternity with the likes of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and W.C. Fields, entombed alongside them in a grand marble mausoleum that will be all but off-limits to adoring fans who might otherwise turn the pop star's grave into a shrine.

The service comes one month after a lavish public memorial that displayed the King of Pop's gleaming golden casket to millions on TV.

Jackson will be buried inside a gleaming gold and bronze custom-made casket costing $25,000, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

After the burial, the closest the public will be able to get to Jackson's vault is a portion of the mausoleum that displays "The Last Supper Window," a life-size stained-glass re-creation of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. Several 10-minute presentations about the window are held regularly 365 days a year, but most of the building is restricted.

Lisa Burk, who blogs about celebrity graves at Adventures in Grave Hunting by Lisa Burks, said the Jackson family chose well for his final resting place if it was privacy they were after.

"It's impossible to get in there," Burk said. "It was before, and it will be worse now."

By late afternoon Thursday, media tents had cropped up all along the boulevard across from the wrought-iron gates that serve as the main entrance to Forest Lawn. That vantage point offered no view of any mausoleum - just a fountain and a building containing the gift shop.

Glendale police were providing security for the indoor service, which was well inside the sprawling grounds and by-invite only. Family representatives have said the affair was to be private, with no press allowed.

No fans were allowed inside the blocked-off media area, nor had anyone gathered on the fringes of the perimeter by late afternoon. A car accident near the barricades diverted the attention of some officers, and an elementary school across the street was emptying of curious students.

The Jackson family had booked an Italian restaurant in Pasadena for a gathering Thursday night, said Alex Carr, assistant operations manager at Villa Sorriso, in the city's Old Town district. She wouldn't specify the menu or number of people, but said the entire restaurant, which can accommodate 200 guests, had been reserved for the event and that security would be present.

The ceremony ends months of speculation that the singer's body would be buried at Neverland Ranch, in part to make the property a Graceland-style attraction. An amended copy of Jackson's death certificate was filed Thursday in Los Angeles County to reflect Forest Lawn as his final resting place.

In court on Wednesday, it was disclosed that 12 burial spaces were being purchased by Jackson's estate at Forest Lawn Glendale, about eight miles north of downtown Los Angeles, but no details were offered on how they would be used.

The King of Pop died a drug-induced death June 25 at age 50 as he was about to embark on a comeback attempt. The coroner's office has labeled the death a homicide, and Jackson's death certificate lists "injection by another" as the cause.

Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal physician, told detectives he gave the singer a series of sedatives and the powerful anesthetic propofol to help him sleep.

But prosecutors are still investigating, and no charges have been filed.

Michael Jackson's fans cant visit his grave dues his family wanted his private respectives for visit if security will protect at his grave expect his parents wanted it..

 

[Liebling:-)))]

At last!!!!

 

[sara1981]

at last!!!!

yep!!

 

[sara1981]

update:

Picking Jackson's Burial Place: Security Was Key
Picking Michael Jackson's Burial Place: Security Was Key - TIME

The private invitation is understated considering the life it is commemorating: a beige cover, with two corded strands, one black, one brown, each ending in sashes, framing the words "Michael Jackson: August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009." It opens to a portrait of the artist in vivid color, holding flowers. Other portraits — a young Michael and an older Michael, in what is presumably a carnival ground on his Neverland estate — decorate other pages in the thin brochure, along with lyrics and words by the deceased. It asks the recipient to be at The Great Mausoleum of Forest Lawn Memorial Park by 7 p.m. on Sept. 3 for a private service over his "final resting place."

Many aspects of the Great Mausoleum in Glendale, Calif., would have delighted Michael Jackson. It is, in its way, a kind of necrological version of his Neverland, filled with Hollywood pomp, kitsch and idiosyncrasy: rolling hills; art so classic, it's almost camp; and an impressive collection of the relics of the famous dead. But above all, Michael Joseph Jackson's family will take comfort in knowing that their often reclusive son will probably be undisturbed by prying fans and press. "Security was highly critical in the final decision," a source close to the family tells TIME. "[Michael's brother] Randy Jackson was tasked with checking out all of these places, and he worked with the family to make sure Michael will be protected all the time. That was a high priority."

At one point, members of the family actually debated whether to inter the deceased King of Pop in his Neverland estate. Indeed, his brother Jermaine told Larry King that Neverland would have been ideal. "I'm just concerned about security and being secure in a peaceful setting," he said. But Neverland was not popular with all the Jackson family members. There were too many negative associations with Michael's once beloved home: police raided the place in 2005 looking for evidence to be presented in his molestation trial. "That destroyed the magic for him, it really did," his nephew Taj Jackson tells TIME. "Neverland was never an option for me. When I heard it was being considered, I immediately called [Michael's mother Katherine]. She was thinking the same way as well. Michael felt that Neverland was tainted."

Forest Lawn offered a clean slate surrounded by a who's who of Old Hollywood. The 300-acre hillside sanctuary is the final resting place of Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracey, Sammy Davis Jr., Errol Flynn and George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen. Humphrey Bogart and "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford are yards away from each other in the same walled (and locked) garden. Around the grounds are chapels — replicas of famous European churches — such as the "Wee Kirk o' the Heather" (Ronald Reagan tied the knot with Jane Wyman there in 1940). In other locations there are replicas of Michelangelo's David and La Pieta. A massive stained-glass version of one of Jackson's favorite works of Renaissance art, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, is the artistic highlight of the Great Mausoleum. (Jackson had a version of the painting at Neverland, with Christ replaced by himself and the disciples by the likes of Walt Disney, Elvis Presley, John F. Kennedy and Albert Einstein.)

The Great Mausoleum takes its architectural inspiration from the Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy, and features 11 terraces, each named for a flower and filled with its own set of luminaries. Jackson will lie in the Holly Terrace, sharing proximity with Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard. And Jackson will not be far from the comic Red Skelton, whom he once befriended. "Red was very fond of Michael and would no doubt find humor in the fact that they will be spending eternity together," says a Skelton friend.

Another neighbor will be the classic comedian from an even earlier era: W.C. Fields. "They have only the moon in common," says grandson Ronald Fields. "Michael Jackson did the moonwalk, and W.C. Fields loved moonshine. Besides that, I think he'd be just fine with it." Ronald points out that while some find the gothic setting inspiring, it can be a bit morose. "I don't think [W.C.] would have liked it in there," says Ronald, who has written three books about his grandfather. "He didn't like gloomy places. It can be scary there, for God's sake. You expect to hear organ music much of the time."

If the stained-glass lighting within the arched-ceiling architecture is not enough to put the fear of God into trespassers, the not-so-subtle security will keep them away. That has been a feature of the mausoleum long before its latest celebrity client. Family members and plot holders must pass through guards or security camera–manned doors in order to visit loved ones in the structure. Curious wandering is forbidden. Roger Sinclair, 77, a historian of cemeteries who has bought a plot for himself in the Great Mausoleum, was not made to feel welcome, even as a future occupant. Says Sinclair: "I was looking at Travis Banton, a costume designer located near W.C. Fields. And the guards came right up and stood there, two guys in suits. They walked me away, and I was escorted out." Explains Sinclair: "I'm a property owner, and I wasn't at my [exact] property. It's not a place to go wander around."

Sinclair remembers a time when the area was relatively open. Security guards recall an incident decades ago when a vandal-prankster removed a brass letter from one of the celebrity plaques. Since then, sections have been either locked off or carefully monitored. Sinclair adds, "There are cameras and sound devices."

Lisa Burks, a friend of Sinclair's and a self-described "grave hunter" (her website is called Adventures in Grave Hunting), says she was once escorted from the Great Mausoleum by security after leaving flowers at Jean Harlow's grave. "If the Jackson family wants privacy, they could not have picked a better place than this," says Burks. "This place is the cream of the crop for protecting celebrities."

 

[sara1981]

update:

The King of Pop Is Finally Laid to Rest
The King of Pop Is Finally Laid to Rest - Michael Jackson : People.com

They came for an intimate ceremony for a superstar: Lisa Marie Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin, Chris Tucker and Mila Kunis arrived at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif., on Thursday for the funeral for Michael Jackson.

On a hot Southern California night, the skies still smoky from mountain brush fires, the famous friends joined Jackson’s family, including his parents, brothers and sisters and three children, to say goodbye.

As Jackson’s backup dancers served as ushers, his brothers, wearing black armbands and a sequined glove on one hand, carried his flower-covered casket out of the hearse and placed it before about 200 mourners on a stage decorated with white lilies and white roses – a private, intimate gathering in contrast to the thousands who attended Jackson’s internationally telecast memorial service at Los Angeles’ Staples Center.


A Crown for a King
Jackson’s three children then placed a crown on their father’s coffin to mark his place as the King of Pop.

After a prayer by Pastor Lucius Smith and a gospel sung by Gladys Knight, Clifton Davis performed the Jackson 5 song he wrote, “Never Can Say Goodbye.” Jackson’s father Joseph and the Rev. Al Sharpton addressed the mourners, as did close friends and family.

After the ceremony, the brothers carried the casket to the Grand Mausoleum, where at 9:43 p.m. Jackson entered his final resting place.

Afterwards, his family issued statement to "once again thank all of Michael Jackson’s fans around the world for their generous outpouring of support during this terribly difficult time. Their expressions of love for Michael and his music have sustained the Jackson Family."


Famous Neighbors
The entertainer, who died June 25 at age 50, is interred near Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow and Red Skelton. The building is patterned on 13th Century Italian architecture, with the walls and floors of each crypt constructed of reinforced concrete.

The Jackson family provided live video images of the ceremony up to the removal of the casket from the hearse. After that, television stations carried images from news helicopters hovering over a 3,000-foot minimum altitude imposed by authorities during the funeral.

Jackson’s estate will pay for the small but expensive funeral, which took place under heavy security. "The expenses will be extraordinary, but Michael Jackson was extraordinary," Jeryll Cohen, an attorney for the singer's estate, said Wednesday at a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court dealing with the funeral costs.

Jackson's brother Marlon has said that Michael's three children have each written letters to their father that will lie with him alongside one of his signature white gloves. The notes by Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7, read: "Daddy, we love you, we miss you.’


Funeral Tweets
Sharpton sent Twitter messages from the funeral, saying that before the family arrived he was speaking with Thomas Messereau, who successfully defended Jackson against child molestation charges.

"What MJ went through was so unfair, yet he succeeded," Sharpton Tweeted. "In the end, he was the biggest artist ever. He faced the headwinds but he made it."