Posted on 07/07/2009 7:58:55 AM PDT by kristinn
The Jackson family has decided to bring Michael's body to the memorial service being held today at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, putting off the announced plans for a private internment at Forest Lawn cemetery from 8 a.m. PDT to after the service.
The 10 a.m. PDT service is being broadcast on all the major American broadcast and cable news networks, as well as in theaters across the country, the Times Square jumbotron in New York City and on TV screens around the world.
From Entertainment Weekly, performers and friends expected at the service include: Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, Berry Gordy, Jennifer Hudson, Shaheen Jafargholi, Magic Johnson, Martin Luther King III, Bernice A. King, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Brooke Shields, Usher and Stevie Wonder.
Michael's Jackson's close friend Elizabeth Taylor declined an invitation to speak at the service, writing in part on Twitter: "I cannot be part of the public whoopla."
In a strange but fitting twist of fate, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus elephant parade through the streets of Los Angeles is set to take place this morning with the elephants arriving at the Staples Center just hours before the service for the circus' scheduled run at the arena.
FILE - In this July 15, 2008 file photo originally supplied by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, elephants from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, take an early morning stroll en route to the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Stefano Paltera, file) (Stefano Paltera - AP)
Larry King thinks Al Sharptone stole the show... lmao!!
She seems to be the most sane of the group, which probably isn't saying much. The "family" is dysfunctional and lecherous, but I do have great sympathy and concern for those kids.
Would you like Al Sharpton and Sheilah Lee Jackson to be there also? ;-)
I feel sorry for those kids that they had to go through this spectacle...and I am certain they will now take Michael’s place by the parasites.
I’m not watching Wellstone-2 but I got a heads-up that REV.JJ was in all the family photo-ops. Is that true? Where is REV. Sharpton? When will the DVD w/white glove be on sale?
Geraldo is on Fox glorifying the entire Jackson family. I can't stand that b#stard.
sw
It was quite dignified. More so than I thought it would be........
I agree. I only started watching when Usher sang. It was all done on a high level. Nothing crude.
Al Sharpton is the one I did not like....
Larry King is geting up in age.....
Someone emailed me and said the oldest kid looked like he had done a “brb” in his World of Warcraft game just before going on stage. “Hold on. I’m going to my dad’s funeral. Don’t kick me from spectate”.
Larry King is on CNN doing the same, he wants those big interviews...
When she referred to him as Daddy I teared up. What she said was beautiful. The way Fox described her as being a show stealer is what makes me ill. Like this whole thing is a show. An extravaganza.
Anderson Cooper just asked Larry about the casket. This is unreal...
Can't argue with that. At all.
Please tell that the state of California or the city of LA is paying for this circus, and not a dime is coming out of my unhip, nuclear family, conservative, non-jetsetting, not dying half a billion in debt, don’t know a single celebrity, white-bread pockets.
I will start planning for the Pappy Festival right now...who do you want to speak at the celebration of your life? I mean besides ME.
You nailed it once again. I'm slippin..
sw
Trish you had it from the get go. There was no one at that funeral who met him after 1986, so sad! (and telling to boot)
I just see this as soooo phony...all this Christian stuff and then they do dope and orphan their kids or shoot each other in the streets and sharpton and the race baiters come out to defend that and the Gangsta rap behaviors.
A two minute ‘sermon’ doesn’t get it for me. and this self serving spectacle with a prayer here and there to make it “ok’ and a “memorial” doesn’t get it for me either.
Guess I’m just getting too jaded.
I think this all started with the Lady Di funeral, that was what set the precedent.
Re: “It looked like to me that it was not planned. She decided she wanted to say something.”
***********
It didn’t look planned to me, either. I feel bad for those kids and hope they end up with some good people, whoever they may be. It’ll be up to an L.A. family court judge to decide that one. I understand that judge is very, very good at his job.
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