LA braces for Michael Jackson's final act

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

As family members gather the curtain is slowly rising on Michael Jackson's last show.
After a remarkable 50 years of life spawning hit records and bizarre happenings, Michael Jackson will be farewelled under a global spotlight brighter than any he experienced while alive.
Family members, including his three children, and friends appeared at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills on Monday evening (US time) for a "Celebration of Life" service for the late pop star.
La Toya Jackson, wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, was seen being driven away from the cemetery. KCAL-TV showed helicopter footage of a hearse backing up to the Hall of Liberty - a circular building at the cemetery that contains a 1200 seat auditorium - to deliver a casket.
His 11-year-old daughter Paris wiped tears from her face as she was driven away at the conclusion of the service. Family and close friends are expected to return on Tuesday morning (5am Wednesday NZT) for a private funeral.
Jackson's family is hoping the funeral will be a quiet affair, but the cemetery, a resting place for Hollywood legends including Bette Davis, Buster Keaton and Liberace, is swarming with paparazzi and news crews on the ground and in helicopters above.
At a grand public event on Tuesday, 17,000 fans of the late King of Pop will cram into LA's Staples Centre indoor stadium for a memorial concert as epic as the 50 concerts Jackson was set to perform in London.
More than 1.6 million people registered for free tickets to Jackson's downtown memorial. A total of 8,750 people were chosen to receive two tickets each.
"I got the golden ticket!" one fan screamed out of his car window in a Willy Wonka moment as he drove out of the parking lot.
The family announced that participants will include Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.
"It will be a celebration of Michael's life," the memorial's producer Ken Erlich told the New York Daily News. One person who won't be at the memorial is Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and mother of his two oldest children, Prince Michael, 12, and Paris.
"The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy," Rowe's lawyers said in a statement.
"Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately."
Jackson's third child, Prince Michael II, was born via a different surrogate mother.
Rowe does not appear to be coping with the media frenzy, lashing out at paparazzi near home in California's Antelope Valley.
"Are you ready to have your butt kicked? Don't (expletive) touch me!" she said.
The legal maneuvering that marked Jackson's extraordinary and troubled life also continued Monday, with his mother losing a bid to control his enormous but tangled estate. And in one of the few reminders of Jackson's darkest hours, a New York congressman branded Jackson a "pervert" undeserving of so much attention.
British Airways reported a surge of bookings as soon as the memorial arrangements were announced. Virgin's trans-Atlantic flights to San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles were all packed with fans and VIPs, spokesman Paul Charles said.
About 50 theatres across the country, from Los Angeles to Topeka, Kan, to Washington, DC, were planning to broadcast the memorial live, for free.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, a judge appointed Jackson's longtime attorney and a family friend as administrators of his estate over the objections of his mother, Katherine. Attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain had been designated in Jackson's 2002 will as the people he wanted to oversee his empire.
Katherine Jackson's attorneys expressed concerns about McClain and Branca's financial leadership. "Frankly, Mrs. Jackson has concerns about handing over the keys to the kingdom," said one of her attorneys, John E Schreiber.
Branca and McClain will have to post a US$1 million bond on the estate, and their authority will expire August 3, when another hearing will be held.
"Mr. Branca and Mr. McClain for the next month are at the helm of the ship," the judge said.
Jackson died at age 50 with hundreds of millions in debts. But a court filing estimates his estate is worth more than US$500 million. His assets are destined for a trust, with his three children, his mother and charities as beneficiaries.
In New York, Republican Representative Peter King released a YouTube video calling Jackson, who was acquitted of child molestation charges, a "pervert" and a "low-life."
But the memories of Jackson's problems were far from the minds of fans preparing to say goodbye.
"It's the passing of a great soul," said Matt Tyson, 31, of Ojai, California "He brought people together, helped express something that's in us all."
Jackson, who died on June 25, in yet to be explained circumstances at his rented LA mansion, filled the world's largest arenas and his 1982 album Thriller remains the biggest album of all-time with 109 million copies sold, but the global coverage of the memorial will reach a new level.
The memorial will be beamed live into TV sets around the world and around the world and will likely create the biggest internet broadcast event in history, with Facebook, MySpace and MTV offering online video views.
While the timing may force Kiwi fans to forgo sleep to watch it live at 5am, the memorial will air in primetime in Europe and is expected to break morning ratings records in North America.
Downtown hotels were quickly filling. Police, trying to avoid a mob scene, warned those without tickets to stay away because they would not be able to get close to the Staples Center.
All those involved say the heart of Los Angeles will become a circus. In one way, that characterization will be literal.
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey starts a run at Staples Centre on Wednesday, a booking long planned in advance. In the pre-dawn hours before Jackson's memorial, the elephants will walk from the train station to the arena.
As Jackson was well aware, the show must go on.