Michael Jackson's burial done with Tight security

The pop star Michael Jackson finally will be buried near Los Angeles on Thursday evening, after 70 days after his death, and authorities are going to great lengths to ensure the total securtiy as if there would be rest in peace.

The historic cemetery at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the city of Glendale, where the pop star will be laid to rest, has been closed to all but members of the Jackson family and friends attending the 7 p.m. PDT (0200 GMT Friday) funeral.

Surrounding streets and even the air space over the area also have been restricted.



Police helicopters with infra-red technology started buzzing the 290-acre (117-hectare) cemetery on Wednesday night to make sure no one slipped in. Police dogs, plainclothes officers and private security guards are patrolling the area.

The Jackson estate was to reimburse the Glendale Police Department for its expenses, which the agency has estimated will be up to $150,000.

By contrast, the city of Los Angeles has absorbed the estimated $1.4 million cost of Jackson's televised memorial service in July.

Police in Glendale, a city of 200,000 in the shadow of a giant wildfire sweeping nearby mountains, have advised fans to stay home and watch the proceedings on television.

But the programing is unlikely to be scintillating. News media will be corralled in a park down the road, and will have to strain for a glimpse of the limousines speeding past.

No one is saying what will take place at the service in the cemetery's Great Mausoleum. One detail to emerge, courtesy of celebrity website TMZ, is that fellow Motown veteran Gladys Knight will sing.

Jackson will be in stellar company at Forest Lawn, a stately park dotted with elaborate mausoleums and rolling lawns. Celebrities buried there include Walt Disney, singers Sam Cooke, Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat "King" Cole, and Hollywood icons Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable.

Jackson died of a drug overdose on June 25, at age 50, in what the Los Angeles County Coroner ruled last week was a homicide.

Michael Jackson Funeral To Take Place in Glendale, California Tonight and Family and friends gather

After some delays,at last the unwelcome incident occers tonight for all people of the world that is Jackson's signs will be no more in the world.Tonight Michael Jackson will be buried in a private ceremony at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

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.

Michael 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.





Friends and family will come in the Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale this evening for the burial of Michael Jackson.Authorities will be out in force for the funeral, though they don't expect huge crowds of spectators. The funeral begins at 7 p.m. Jackson will be interred in the expansive cemetery's Great Mausoleum. The pop singer's remains will be placed in a crypt in the Holly Terrace section of the mausoleum, a massive building that is the final resting place for stars from film's golden age, such as Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

The burial caps months of rumors about where he would be laid to rest. One report had his body stored in a crypt owned by Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., and there was widespread speculation that an elaborate grave -- and ultimately, a Graceland-style museum -- would be constructed at the entertainer's Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County.

But Jackson's family, led by his 79-year-old mother, Katherine, selected Forest Lawn, a 20-minute trip across the San Fernando Valley from their Encino home.On Wednesday, it was decided that Jackson's estate will pay the undisclosed expenses for the singer's funeral today -- a sum one attorney called "extraordinary."

Probate Judge Mitchell Beckloff approved the payment at a hearing Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles after an attorney for the estate's administrators assured him that the estate had the financial resources to pay for the funeral and that it would not affect its solvency.

"The expenses are extraordinary; however, Michael Jackson is extraordinary," said attorney Jeryll S. Cohen, who told the judge that the administrators did not object to the expenses. "They may not be appropriate for an ordinary person, but Michael Jackson was not ordinary."

Attorneys for the singer's mother filed papers under seal late Tuesday asking that the estate foot the bill for the funeral she has planned. Burt Levitch, Katherine Jackson's attorney, said outside of court that he did not find the expenses extraordinary.
The bulk of the cost was going to the fee for Jackson to be interred at the cemetery, Levitch said. There, Jackson will be laid to rest amid lavish decorations, including statues and stained glass windows.Margaret G. Lodise, an attorney representing Jackson's children, said she had no concerns that the funeral costs would overburden the estate. The sum is "not going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back," Lodise said.

Glendale city officials have said the public costs associated with the burial, including traffic control and other police services, would be passed on to the family.Police spokesman Tom Lorenz said the cost of police services for Jackson's funeral would be $150,000 at most. Under a contract with Forest Lawn, police will provide "elaborate" security, including dogs and air support, he said.
He declined to specify how many officers would be deployed for the funeral, but said it would not affect the department's ongoing fire efforts, which he said were now down a handful of officers dealing with street closures.

Michael JackSudden Ending oson at the age of 50

Michael Jackson, AKA the King of Pop, died Thursday, June 25th after going into cardiac arrest.Michael-Jackson, One of music’s most successful and influential artists, Michael Jackson died earlier today in Los Angeles at the age of 50, the L.A. County coroner's office confirms.Media reports indicate that Mr. Jackson’s body will be transported to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office for an autopsy later today. LA city and law enforcement sources say that he was pronounced dead at 3.15 local time. During his nearly half-century career, Jackson recorded a series of pop classics as part of the Jackson 5 and then became a massive solo star. His 1982 album Thriller has been certified platinum 28 times in the U.S. and is the best-selling original collection ever released.Michael was married to nurse Debbie Rowe and had two children, son Prince Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. and daughter Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.



Reactions of friends and family :
The sudden death of Michael Jackson jolted his friends and family, a second blow to the entertainment world after it lost another icon, Farrah Fawcett, just hours earlier.

Jermaine Jackson spoke to the media on behalf of the family Thursday evening. Speaking about his brother Michael, he said, “It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of death is unknown until the results of the autopsy are done.”
Pacific, television news channels showed a city helicopter moving Mr. Jackson’s body to the coroner’s office. Workers placed the body, which was wrapped in a white sheet, onto a stretcher and then into a waiting van. “Such a larger than life figure is, in the end, just a human body,” a commentator said on Fox News.
Tommy Mottola, a former head of Sony Music, called Mr. Jackson “the cornerstone to the entire music business.”“He bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and pop music and made it into a global culture,” said Mr. Mottola in a telephone interview. Mr. Mottola worked with Mr. Jackson until the singer cut his ties with Sony in 2001. “No one has ever done what he did in his time — and no one will ever do what he did after his time.”


"I can't stop crying over the sad news," Madonna says. "I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever! My heart goes out to his three children and other members of his family. God bless."

Lisa Marie Presley, who was briefly married to Jackson in the mid-1990s, says, "I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible. I am heartbroken for his children, who I know were everything to him, and for his family. This is such a massive loss on so many levels, words fail me."

"My heart is overcome with sadness for the devastating loss of my true friend Michael," adds Brooke Shields, who raised eyebrows when she briefly dated Jackson. "He was an extraordinary friend, artist and contributor to the world. I join his family and his fans in celebrating his incredible life and mourning his untimely passing."

Elizabeth Taylor, one of Jackson's closest and longstanding friends, was "too devastated" to issue a statement, her rep says, while Quincy Jones, who produced Jackson's biggest hits, says, "I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news. For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words."

Our colleague Jennifer Mascia reports: Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records who helped turn the Jackson 5 into pop stars, said on CNN.com that he felt sorry “for all of the fans around the world that are so much in love with Michael.”Mr. Gordy said that Mr. Jackson, as a boy, “always wanted to be the best, and he was willing to work as hard as it took to be that. And we could all see that he was a winner at that age. And I’ve always believed winners are winners long before they win. And picking them out before they win is very easy with a Michael Jackson.”

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, which honored Jackson with 13 Grammys, says, "Rarely has the world received a gift with the magnitude of artistry, talent, and vision as Michael Jackson. He was a true musical icon."



Biography of Michael Jackson :

Jackson was born in Gary, Ind., on Aug. 29, 1958, and by the age of 6 the prodigiously talented singer and dancer was performing alongside his brothers.
Named as "King of Pop" in the world.He was the seventh of nine children. His musical career began at age five when he became the lead singer of the Jackson 5 in 1964.The Jackson 5 signed to Motown in 1968 and released a string of huge hits including “ABC” and “I Want You Back.” Jackson entered the charts as a solo artist in 1972 with the song “Ben,” The group’s first four singles all made US No. 1 hits. They recorded 14 albums with Motown before signing with Epic. With Epic Michael recorded his first solo album, “Off The Wall.” The album became the first album ever to release four No.1 singles in the US.In1978 he appeared in the big screen musical The Wiz alongside Diana Ross. The following year, his album Off The Wall established Jackson as a solo superstar. His musical career continued to grow releasing the world’s largest selling album, “Thriller,” which produced 7 hit singles and sold 50 million copies including “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”





Michael can’t be mentioned without speaking of his legendary moonwalk which he performed for the first time in 1983 on the “Motown 25 years” anniversary show, shooting him into the superstar genre.Michael continued his success, winning eight Grammies in one night.He officially went solo in 1984 and was named “Artist of the Decade” at the end of the 1980’s.Michael performed all over the world, being the first to perform in countries that had never been visited by a pop/rock artist.Through the years Jackson’s legacy remained but his reputation wavered.In the late 1980’s Jackson created Neverland, a ranch in California where he housed exotic pets and had his own amusement rides. In 1993 Jackson was charged with child molestation after a 13-year-old boy claimed the star had fondled him.

Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 and later divorced her in 1996, only to marry Debbie Rowe that same year.The star’s public profile was badly damaged in the '90s when he was accused of child sex abuse, and in recent years he had become an extremely reclusive figure. Despite his reputation as one of pop’s greatest dancers and all-round in-concert showman, he also effectively abandoned touring.Criticism of Jackson continued throughout the years, including criticism of his many facial surgeries and his skin lightening due to what he said was because of the disease vitiligo. In 2002 he received enormous criticism for dangling his son over a balcony while greeting fans in Germany which he claimed was, “out of innocence.”

While his personal life often attracted criticism and controversy, the oft-dubbed King of Pop’s influence on the musical realm is unarguable. That influence was demonstrated in 2008 when Kanye West, will.i.am, Fergie, and Akon all contributed to the remixes featured on the 25th anniversary reissue of Thriller. In his long career Jackson also worked with some of pop’s most talented artists, including both Paul McCartney and Thriller producer Quincy Jones.


However, Jackson had planned to play a series of dates in London, starting next month.Michael Jackson was set to perform in a comeback tour with 50 shows to begin July 13th. Tickets sold out in only four hours.But unfortunately this is impossible to set up the show as he is now out of his life,died Thursday, June 25th after going into cardiac arrest.Michael-Jackson.