Michael Jackson Funeral

Michael Jackson Funeral

It was a much smaller gathering, but those who turned up for the Michael Jackson "private" funeral and burial Thursday at Forest Lawn Cemetery - burial place for the stars! - in Glendale, Calif. - were quite as star-studded a group as the big memorial at the Staples Center. Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin, Barry Bonds, Corey Feldman, Mila Kunis, Lisa Presley and Chris Tucker all showed up, as we could see from the expensive and well-lit television feed provided by the Jackson family. And eventually, so did members of the Jackson family.

The rest of the Jackson 5 are somehow bound to dress alike in dark suits and armbands. They sit together as if they have no families of their own. Janet Jackson played the role of widow and sat with them. The Jackson children, now out of the shadow, were minus their scarves and masks, and just fanned themselves with the program awaiting its start. On the ground, Gladys Knight reportedly sang "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and Clifton Davis sang "Never Can Say Goodbye," which was true enough to explain the delay in the service.

What was supposed to be a sunset service started an hour late. It had been 70 days since the death, it would wait another 60 minutes. The Jackson family pulled the feed (with a card that said THE END) as the body was removed from the hearse to keep some semblance of privacy for the actual service. The news organizations hung around anyway, with an overhead shot taken by some apparently stationary helicopter.