AC360°
Michael Jackson will be interred this evening inside the Great Mausoleum on the grounds of Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California. The service will be private, but we'll have full coverage from outside the cemetery starting at 10 p.m. ET.
The massive mausoleum, which is normally open to tourists, was closed today in preparation 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. 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. It is still unclear whether or not tourists will be allowed to visit Jackson's resting place.
Check out these photos of the Great Mausoleum.
CNN
Tonight Michael Jackson will be buried during a private service at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California. Only his family and closest friends will attend the burial, but we'll have live coverage of the event outside of the cemetery starting at 10 p.m. ET.
LIFE
He was lauded and ridiculed. He broke down barriers and built them around himself. He soared to heights unimaginable with his music, and he made the ignominious front page of gutter tabloids worldwide. For Michael Jackson, the spotlight was always present, and the rest of the world followed.
Gotham Chopra
Intent.com
I thought long and hard about whether to go on CNN tonight and once again talk about my late friend Michael Jackson. Months ago when he died, I did a flurry of interviews, mostly on CNN and with Larry King and got a lot of positive feedback for some of the things I said about Michael. Viewers wrote to me in droves via email, facebook, and twitter; there were grateful that I had “humanized” him. It was natural to me to re-collect Michael more as a friend – I knew him from when I was just a kid on through my college years, my first few years out in the working world, getting married and becoming a father – rather than try to analyze the pendulum of his career from iconic rock-star to scandal plagued celebrity. I was close to him as he endured both phases and what was remarkable was that he stayed largely the same guy underneath, staggeringly intelligent and wildly irreverent, deeply spiritual but quintessentially cynical. Michael was cool, but he was also conflicted. He was forever a contradiction, a creative visionary that wanted to heal the world, but could barely keep his own life together.
Part of the reason I was ambivalent about going on TV tonight was because I’m not attending the memorial service/burial today in which he is finally being laid to rest. The reasons for that were various. To tick off a few: frankly because it’s really weird to me that he died 2.5 months ago and still had not been buried (in the Hindu tradition, the body must be disposed off within two days, and not that I am even very Hindu, but come on…); because I sensed the service would be more of the same – a circus of attention seekers and media – and I didn’t really want to be a part of it; and because, well, I don’t think I was really invited by his family or lawyers or post-death entourage, whoever is running the show. I’m not surprised, nor disappointed. I was good friends with Michael, not his parents nor many siblings, not his wonderful children, nor the many in his entourage who always seemed to be around, and appear just as plentiful and voracious in his death. On the former (the family), this has no doubt been a conflicted time for them as well. When I was with him the last few years, Michael intimated a deep respect for many of the members of his family, but he didn’t profess a real intimacy with them in recent times. He loved his brothers deeply but he didn’t ache to re-establish the famous fraternity the world once knew. Then again, what do I know?
Alan Duke
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 funeral inside the ornate Great Mausoleum on the grounds of Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.
The news media, which has closely covered every aspect of Jackson's death, will be kept at a distance, with cameras no closer than the cemetery's main gate.
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.
James L. Walker Jr.
Special to CNN
Michael Jackson died of an overdose, according to the preliminary finding of the Los Angeles coroner described in court documents. The King of Pop apparently was given a variety of drugs that included the powerful sedative propofol, according to authorities.
The news came as a shock to some. But the reality it pointed to was this: Michael Jackson was an addict.
A drug addict is a person who has become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance or drug.
I operate a halfway house and we deal with this struggle regularly with our men, who have become addicts, and they continually tell me how hard it is to overcome. They also tell me that people are vulnerable to addiction whether white or black, rich or poor: Drugs don't discriminate.
I am also an entertainment lawyer who understands the pressures of working in the music industry and the experience of insomnia that Jackson apparently complained about over the years.
Alan Duke
CNN
A Los Angeles judge Wednesday approved Katherine Jackson's request that the Michael Jackson estate be sent the bill for the cost of this week's funeral for her son.
The pop singer is to finally be interred more than two months after his death in a private ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, Thursday evening, the Jackson family said.
A short hearing was held Wednesday morning before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff to consider Katherine Jackson's petition.
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