Michael Jackson's Funeral: Paris Weeps, Macaulay, Liz Taylor, Chris Tucker, Corey Feldman All Mourn
(Little Michael performs "Who's Loving You" with his brothers on the Ed Sullivan show.)
(Michael Jackson is finally laid to rest. MSNBC reports.)
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(Michael Jackson's casket arrives for his final private service.)
Paris Jackson wept as she stepped into the mausoleum where her father, Michael, was to be entombed. Katherine Jackson, overcome by sorrow, turned back when she was faced with her son's final resting place.
On a sultry Thursday evening, amid a sea of white flowers and with a bejeweled crown placed atop his casket by his children, the King of Pop was given an intimate, private version of the lavish public memorial held shortly after his death in June.
Gladys Knight performed the hymn "Our Father" (The Lord's Prayer) and moved many to tears, according to one guest who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the day.
When it was over, many of the the 200 mourners hugged each other. Among them were Elizabeth Taylor, Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, Barry Bonds and Macaulay Culkin.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who gave a eulogy at the public event and at Thursday's service, also extolled Knight's earlier performance of "His Eye is on the Sparrow."
"Gladys Knight sang her heart out. Now we prepare to lay him to rest," Sharpton posted on his Twitter account during the service that was held outside and then within the marble mausoleum.
The mourners followed the crowned, lushly flower-draped casket as Jackson's five brothers – each wearing a bright red tie and a single crystal-studded glove – carried it into the mausoleum. The 11-year-old Paris cried as the group entered the imposing building and was comforted by her aunt, LaToya.
Paris and brothers Prince Michael, 12, and Prince Michael II, 7, known as Blanket, began the service by placing the crown on their father's golden casket. They were composed through most of the hour-and-a-half ceremony.
As it ended, Katherine Jackson appeared extremely weary and had to be helped to her car, according to the guest. Earlier, she had a difficult time going into the mausoleum; she was overcome, turned back, and it wasn't clear if she went in at all, the guest said.
The Jackson family's tardy arrival delayed the service for nearly two hours; no explanation was given to mourners. The invitation notice indicated the service would begin promptly at 7 p.m.; it began closer to 8:30.
The 77-year-old Taylor and others were left waiting in the late summer heat, with the temperature stuck at 90 degrees just before sunset, and some mourners fanned themselves with programs for the service. As darkness fell, police escorted the family's motorcade of 31 cars, including Rolls-Royces and Cadillacs, from their compound in Encino to Forest Lawn, about a 20-minute journey, with the hearse bearing Jackson's body at the end.
About 250 seats were arranged for mourners over artificial turf laid roadside at the mausoleum, and a vivid orange moon, a mark of the devastating wildfire about 10 miles distant, hung over the cemetery.
There were two over-sized portraits of a youthful, vibrant Jackson mounted next to the casket amid displays of white lilies and roses. At Jackson's lavish public memorial, red roses covered his casket.
A large, blimp-like inflated light, the type used in film and television production, and a boom camera hovered over the seating area placed in front of the elaborate marble mausoleum. The equipment raised the possibility that the footage would be used for the Jackson concert documentary "This Is It," or perhaps the Jackson brothers' upcoming reality show.
More than 400 media credentials were issued to reporters and film crews who remained at a distance from the service and behind barricades. The few clusters of fans who gathered around the secure perimeter that encircled the cemetery entrance struggled to see.
Maria Martinez, 25, a fan from Riverside, Calif., who was joined by a dozen other Jackson admirers at a gas station near the security perimeter, gave a handful of pink flowers she had picked at a nearby park to a man with an invitation driving into the funeral.
"Can you please put these flowers on his grave?" she told him. "They were small and ugly, but I did that with my heart. I'm not going to be able to get close, so this is as close as I could get to him."
The man consented, adding, "God bless."
Glendale police said all went smoothly and there were no arrests.
Jackson will share eternity at Forest Lawn with the likes of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and W.C. Fields, entombed alongside them in the mausoleum that will be all but off-limits to adoring fans who might otherwise turn the pop star's grave into a shrine.
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.
The Jackson family had booked an Italian restaurant in Pasadena for a gathering Thursday night, and family members and guests were seen coming and going late into the night.
"I feel like I watched Michael finally given some peace and I made a commitment to make sure his legacy and what he stood for lives on," Sharpton said outside the restaurant around midnight. "So at one level we're relieved; another level we're obligated."
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.
CNN Coverage Of Jackson's Private Funeral----
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." Gallery: Invitation for Jackson's service »
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.
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Sources: Huffington Post, MSNBC, NY Times, People.com, CNN, Youtube, Google Maps
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