Much like her life, the remains of Zsa Zsa Gabor sit in the lap of luxury.
The Hungarian beauty and celebrity prototype’s ashes arrived to a Beverly Hills memorial service on Friday in a Louis Vuitton dog carrier, clutched by the late star’s husband Frederic Prinz von Anhalt.
It might seem a bit ghastly, especially to the housewives of the neighborhood, but von Anhalt’s reasoning was sad and sweet when he explained himself during a 45-minute eulogy.
“Dogs were her best people,” the widower told a modest crowd at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Santa Monica Blvd.
That particular bag had traveled the world with the couple, von Anhalt said. To cushion the rectangle-shaped urn was a
Von Anhalt spoke at the Catholic service with the urn beside him, as Zsa Zsa would have thought, “If you go on stage, I’m going on stage,” he said to laughs from the crowd.
Attendance was light for the rainy morning service, consisting mostly of family and few local relics (like Bobby Trendy, an over-the-top interior designer for clients like the late Anna Nicole Smith).
Earlier in the week, a celebrity guest list for the service released by von Anhalt was awkwardly contradicted by reps for several of the names included — like Debbie Reynolds (who died Wednesday) Kris Jenner, Larry King, Barbara Eden, Carol Channing and more.
It felt fitting, however, that Zsa Zsa was the only star in the room. For a couple so easily associated with excess, the service was shockingly low-key. Quaint, even, as an enlarged photograph no bigger than a concert flyer stood on an easel beside her ashes with the caption, “Farewell My Love.”
Von Anhalt said the building was not full because “timing was always bad for my wife. She could’ve died 10 days before, or 10 days after” her Dec. 18 heart attack.
Most of her friends had already died, he added, or were traveling to places like “Colorado or Acapulco” for the New Year.
Elaborate flower arrangements were present, though ribbons strung around them indicated they were for Prinz Oliver von Anhalt, Zsa Zsa and Frederic’s adopted son who died a week after his mother in a tragic motorcycle accident. He was not mentioned during the service or eulogy. His brother Marcus Prinz von Anhalt sat beside his father during the service.
Actor and comic Jason Stuart, who had a role in Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation,” told TheWrap that “99-years-old could hardly be considered a loss” when discussing Gabor’s long life, career and many marriages. He was also friendly with Gabor’s late daughter Francesca Hilton.
Stuart said what many were whispering in the aisles, that the tragedy of Gabor’s death was compounded by an onslaught of recent loss.
“It’s Debbie and Carrie [Fisher], George [Michael], Alan Thicke. And all at the same time,” Stuart said of the entertainers who died this December.
Before packing up his wife in the Vuitton bag, von Anhalt explained why no other mourners would climb to the podium to offer tributes.
“She hated events like this, she hated to attend funerals,” von Anhalt said, adding that his wife hated the idea of performative mourning.
“You’re not mourning! You’re here for a piece of cake!” he said, imitating Gabor.
Before the church emptied out into the noon sunlight, von Anhalt left with the words, “We lost a good woman. Keep her in your prayers.”