Michael Jackson's funeral cost more than $1 million
While celebrity medium Derek Acorah was busy pretending to contact Michael Jackson in a seance late last week -- the King of Pop was singing Heal the World when he started complaining that he wasn't buried near Marilyn Monroe -- the L.A. Times was busy parsing out the fact that MJ's funeral cost more than $1 million. So much for feeding starving orphans.
Records show Jackson's crypt at Forest Lawn cost his estate $590,000, the Times says. Security for the September event, including the luxury cars to ferry his family around, ran $30,000. Flowers cost $16,000 and the funeral planner earned a cool $15,000. The "funeral repast" at an Italian restaurant in Pasadena was so good, it fetched a $21,455 bill.
Jackson was well dressed, with funerary attire ringing in at $35,000. Invitations for "guests" like Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin and Quincy Jones totaled a mind-boggling $11,716.
The records were released by a probate judge who appointed entertainment attorney John Branca and music exec John McClain as executors of MJ's estate. We're assuming that's because the family made such horrible financial decisions at the funeral.
[Photo: Getty Images]


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