Jacksons Furious At Funeral Coverage

By Hollywood.com
Randy Jackson has hit out at the media after some outlets deployed helicopters to cover his brotherMichael’s private funeral ceremony — demanding they pull the footage from any future broadcasts.

The King of Pop was laid to rest at the Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Thursday evening, more than two months after his tragic demise in June.
Following the star-studded public memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in July, only a select group of family and close friends was allowed to the outdoor ceremony.
Macaulay Culkin, actor Chris Tucker, and best friend Elizabeth Taylor were some of the attendees at the outdoor ceremony, which saw around 200 guests pay their last respects to the “Thriller” hitmaker.
But despite allowing cameras in to record the guests arriving at the ceremony, the Jacksons are furious that some press organizations sent helicopters to film the funeral.
The late superstar’s brother Randy has spoken out — insisting a private family gathering was no place for the world’s media.
In a statement, he says, “As a family, we are all aware of how Michael’s life, and his death, touched so many around the world. It is why we held a public memorial in my brother’s honor. And it is the reason we chose to release a small amount of footage leading up to yesterday’s ceremony at Forest Lawn.
“I was dismayed last night and again today at the coverage I saw on television of our ceremony for Michael. We had asked the media to respect the privacy and the sanctity of this event; to give us one moment of privacy to mourn as a family out of the public spotlight.
“Unfortunately, despite a no-fly zone around Forest Lawn, many media organizations decided to ignore our wishes. They employed helicopters that not only surreptitiously recorded our private family ceremony, but also severely disrupted it.”
“I therefore ask today that media organizations airing helicopter footage of the ceremony we held for my brother immediately pull that footage from their air and refrain from airing it in the future.”

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Michael Jackson Funeral To Take Place Tonight

More than two months after Michael Jackson’s death, the singer will finally be buried on Thursday (September 3) at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. But unlike the star-studded public memorial held in July, the final goodbye to the 50-year-old pop icon will be a private affair for friends and family only.

Jackson will be interred in the Great Mausoleum on the grounds of Forest Lawn, the final resting place for a number of Hollywood legends, including George Burns, Clark Gable, Nat King Cole, John Wayne and Walt Disney. Police promise a heavy presence during the event — including canine units and air support — and have encouraged gawkers to stay away. CNN reported that Gladys Knight, a longtime friend of Jackson’s, will perform an undisclosed song at the service. No media will be allowed at the funeral and the family has not announced anything about the program.
In addition to replicas of Michelangelo’s “David” and “Moses” sculptures, the mausoleum where Jackson will be buried features an ornate stained glass rendition of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” making it a fitting resting place for the singer, who once commissioned for his bedroom a “Last Supper” portrait in which he appeared as Jesus among disciples that include Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Elvis and Walt Disney. The huge mausoleum is normally open to tourists but was closed on Wednesday in preparation for the funeral.
It is unclear where the golden casket that took center stage at the July celebration at the Staples Center in Los Angeles has been since that event, though it is rumored that it has been kept in the Forest Lawn crypt of Motown founder Berry Gordy.
As with most things relating to the singer, there has been controversy around the funeral, with some balking at initial reports that the city would pick up the costs of security for Thursday’s event. A Glendale police official told the Los Angeles Times that the funeral could cost upwards of $150,000, but unlike the $1.4 million it cost the city of Los Angeles to provide security and traffic services for the Staples Center event, the Jackson family has said that the late singer’s estate would pick up the tab for the funeral.
Another controversial aspect of the funeral centered on the reported divide in the family over where Jackson should be buried. Brother Jermaine Jackson has said he wanted to see Michael buried at the singer’s Neverland Valley Ranch estate, a home Jackson vowed never to return to after a raid on the compound led to charges of child molestation for which Jackson was acquitted in 2005. Neighbors of the rural Santa Barbara County, California, ranch had balked at the idea and feared a potential onslaught of fan traffic to their bucolic neighborhood. Other members of the family also rejected the idea because of Jackson’s expressed desire not to live there again.
Jackson, whose death is still under investigation by police, was originally set to be buried on what would have been his 51st birthday on August 29. But after those plans were announced by the late singer’s father and later confirmed by his spokesperson, the funeral was pushed back without explanation.
Police have ruled Jackson’s death a homicide, and the pop star’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, has reportedly become the focus of the criminal investigation. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office — which has concluded its investigation but withheld the final autopsy report in order to allow police to conclude their investigation — has determined the cause of death as “acute propofol intoxication,” a reference to the surgical anesthetic Murray has reportedly told investigators he administered to Jackson several times in the hours before the singer’s death on June 25. Murray has not been charged with any crime in the case.

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Report: Michael Jackson to Be Buried on His Birthday

Joseph Jackson says his son Michael will be finally laid to rest on Aug. 29, on what would have been the King of Pop’s 51st birthday.

Speaking to New York’s Daily News, the Jackson patriarch said the burial would take place at Los Angeles’s Forest Lawn Cemetery at 10 that morning, some two months after Michael’s June 25 death.Jackson, 80, said that these arrangements had only been finalized recently, says theNews. He also said that his wife Katherine, from whom he lives separately, has been particularly hard hit by their son’s death and suffers crying jags.

He further said that security guards prevented him from seeing Michael in the months before he died, and that daughter LaToya’s suggestion to the media last week that Michael’s Neverland estate would be moved to Las Vegas was not to be taken seriously.

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