I was all set to publish a blog post today about the Old School house, but a drive through Burbank yesterday evening caused that plan to go awry. At around 7 p.m. last night, after running a random errand in Hollywood, I drove home via Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank and practically had to stop my car right in its tracks due to a virtual circus that was taking place out in front of Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Over fifteen news vans were parked on the side of the road and countless media personnel were milling about on the sidewalk in front of the Burbank area cemetery. I had heard rumors that Michael Jackson’s funeral might take place at Forest Lawn early next week, but I didn’t believe reporters would be setting up already. So, of course, I just had to pull my car over to find out what was going on!
According to the reporters staked out at Forest Lawn, there are numerous unconfirmed reports that Michael Jackson’s family is planning to bury the King of Pop in a private ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. I asked one of the reporters why so many media vans were there if the funeral reports were not yet confirmed and he informed me that the cemetery, which goes by the full name of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, is their “best guess as to Michael’s funeral location”. Apparently, the reporters are camping out in teams for the next FOUR days until the funeral takes place. It is absolutely incredible to me that they are willing to actually camp out for over NINETY-SIX hours on the side of the road on the off-chance that Michael’s funeral might take place nearby! Unreal! Only time will tell if the funeral actually will take place at Forest Lawn, but if the media is willing to camp out there for FOUR full days, I am guessing they must have a pretty solid tip to go on. And I can only imagine what the place is going to look like in the days to come!
It seemed yesterday that pretty much every single news outlet imaginable was already on duty in front of Forest Lawn. Even Telemundo was there!
Apparently, CNN thought they could simply tape off a piece of the road to reserve their spot, in lieu of having their reporters camp out on-site. LOL If I was reporter for a competing station I’d so stand there and be like, “Um, sorry! You snooze, you lose!” 🙂
Most of the news vans on-site already had GINORMOUS satellite equipment set up so that they could broadcast live. It was absolutely incredible to see!
And although I have yet to stalk the inside of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, I promise to do so in the near future so that I can write a more complete blog post about the cemetery. Forest Lawn has long been popular with the rich and famous and Michael Jackson is hardly the first celeb to be buried there. Forest Lawn is also the final resting place for Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Ozzie Nelson, Freddie Prinze, Liberace, Telly Savalas, John Ritter, Sandra Dee, Steve Allen and the recently deceased David Carradine. Apparently, the Forest Lawn staff is remiss about divulging the location of star’s graves, but thankfully the Seeing-Stars website provides a plethora of information about the cemetery including a virtual map!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank. Do not confuse this Forest Lawn cemetery with their other location named Forest Lawn Glendale, which is located just a few miles away at 1712 S. Glendale Avenue in Glendale.