Nearly two months after Michael Jackson’s life was celebrated by the public at a star-studded memorial in downtown Los Angeles, friends and family will gather to bury the singer and mourn privately at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale Thursday evening.
The funeral starts at 7 p.m, and Motown singer Gladys Knight will sing during the proceedings, according to TMZ.
Jackson will be interred in the cemetery’s lavish Great Mausoleum while his remains will be put in a crypt in the Holly Terrace building — which also houses stars like Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and W.C. Fields. His burial spot was selected by his family, who reside in nearby Encino.
At a hearing Wednesday, Probate Judge Mitchell Beckloff said it was OK for the funeral to be paid for by the singer’s estate. An attorney for the estate’s administrators, Jeryll S. Cohen, told the Judge the cost of the funeral — which he called "extraordinary" — would not damage the estate’s resources.
It was also disclosed in court that 12 burial spaces are being purchased at Forest Lawn, but it is unclear how they are being used.
The cost of this evening’s police services including air support and traffic control in Glendale will go to the family and should not exceed $150,000, a police spokesman told the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, the legal drama over his death on June 25 rages on.