Celebrities for Michael Jackson burial

Pop superstar Michael Jackson was to be buried 10 weeks after his drug-induced death in a private ceremony for family and friends at a cemetery for the stars in suburban Los Angeles.

The intimate ceremony had been scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Thursday (0002 GMT Friday) in the mausoleum of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, but the Jackson family only left their compound in a fleet of Rolls Royce limousines half an hour after the scheduled start.

However, stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Macauley Culkin and Chris Tucker were seen arriving at the ceremony as was the political activist the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Jackson, who would have turned 51 Saturday, was to be buried in an ornate building featuring copies of the Michelangelo statues of David and Moses and a stained glass rendition of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper.

It is also the final resting place of other show business legends like Walt Disney, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow, Errol Flynn, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

Jackson was expected to be buried in the gold coffin used at his public funeral, but in stark contrast to that massive event, attendance at Thursday's ceremony was limited to close friends and family with no media allowed.

Police mounted a large operation to insure the integrity of the event, patrolling the 300-hectare cemetery with helicopters and dogs.

Glendale police said they expected to bill the cost to Jackson's estate, which was ordered Wednesday by a probate judge to bear the "extraordinary" costs of his funeral.

Apart from Jackson's family, entertainment figures including Diana Ross, Brooke Shields and Larry King were expected to attend the no-expenses spared funeral that was to even feature Jackson's favourite doughnuts flown in specially from Connecticut.

Probate judge Mitchell Beckloff approved the payment at a hearing in downtown Los Angeles after an attorney for the estate's administrators assured him that the estate of the late singer of such hits as Thriller and Billy Jean, who had been heavily in debt, has enough cash to cover the expenses and that paying for the funeral would not affect its solvency.

"The expenses are extraordinary; however, Michael Jackson is extraordinary," said attorney Jeryll Cohen, who told the judge the administrators did not object to the expenses. "They may not be appropriate for an ordinary person, but Michael Jackson was not ordinary."

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