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Michael Jackson’s private funeral cost his estate more than $1 million, according to court documents released yesterday. Jackson’s final resting place, a crypt at Forest Lawn’s Great Mausoleum, cost $590,000 alone, while invitations to the King of Pop’s funeral carried an $11,000 price tag.
See photos from Michael Jackson’s funeral.
“It was Michael Jackson. He was bigger than life when he was alive,” attorney Howard Weitzman said after the financial detail of the funeral were revealed. According to the Los Angeles Times, other factors contributing to the million dollar tab were $16,000 for the florist bill, $30,000 for security and the fleet of luxury cars, and $21,000 to the Italian restaurant that hosted the “funeral repast.”
Details of the funeral expenses came to light the same day that Michael’s mother Katherine dropped her objections against the two men named as executors in Michael’s 2002 will, John Branca and John McClain. As Rolling Stone previously reported Katherine had changed her legal team in hopes of assuming more power from the two executors. Katherine’s new lawyer Adam Streisand’s first move, however, was to drop the family’s objections against McClain and Branca, saying instead Katherine hoped to work with the executors to further the Michael Jackson estate. “She wants the fighting to end, and she wants it to end now,” Streisand said.
Look back at Jackson’s remarkable career, in photos.
Katherine’s decision surprised no one more than family patriarch Joe Jackson, whose legal team was also in court yesterday hoping to remove Branca and McClain as executors as well as request a monthly allowance from the Jackson estate. Jackson’s 2002 will stated that his estate would give 40 percent to both Katherine ...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily