Coverage of Michael Jackson’s Funeral
Michael Jackson
CNN.com will be having live coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial service, which will be held Tuesday, July 7, at 8 am PT at Forest Lawn Cemetery. A public memorial will be held at 10 am PT at Staples Center, in LA. It is unknown at this point if fans will be able to view Jackson’s body.
CNN has joined with Facebook, so you can update your status, and comment from CNN.com Live during the memorial and share your memories with Facebook users worldwide.
Photos from the memorial service from KTLA.com
In total 17,500 tickets were given out: 11,000 tickets were for the Staples Center, and 6,500 were for the nearby Nokia Theatre, where fans will watch the service on big screens, according to AEG President Tim Leiweke.
An estimated 1.6 million people registered for the online lottery to attend the service.
A lucky group of 8,750 fans each won two free tickets to watch the event in person. Some will view the event on a big screen at the nearby Nokia Theater. Thousands of fans have flooded Staples Center to pay their last respects to Jackson, despite not having a ticket for the service.
Photo gallery of MJ at People.com
The event will be broadcast live by all major networks, and some movie theatres across the US will be showing the memorial. For a list of the theatre locations, visit: www.cinedigm.com.
3,400 LAPD officers are helping with crowd control in and around Staples Center during the day’s events. The total cost to the taxpayer will be around $4 million. There is a contingency fund in the city budget for unexpected events such as celebrity funerals, says LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell. Crowd control is the city’s responsibility, but McDonnell says, “if anyone steps up who wants to defray the costs, they’re welcome to do so.”
Road closures are as follows:
The eastbound Riverside Drive offramp from the Ventura (134) Freeway is closed, along with the eastbound and westbound Forest Lawn Drive offramps. Forest Lawn Drive will be closed between the freeway and Barham Boulevard from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. to accommodate funeral traffic, according to Richard French of the LAPD’s media relations office.
(Source)
Video Feeds from CNN • More info from KTLA.com
