michael jackson memorial cost L.A. $1.4 million

michael jackson memorial cost L.A. $1.4 million

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The memorial service for singer Michael Jackson cost the city of Los Angeles $1.4 million, the mayor's office said Wednesday.

Costs included putting extra police on the streets, trash pickup, sanitation, traffic control and more for the Tuesday event, spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said.

Three thousand police officers -- almost one-third of the Los Angeles police force -- were on hand to ensure the Jackson events proceeded smoothly, Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell, said Tuesday.

The city, which is $530 million in debt, set up a Web page asking Jackson fans to donate money to help with the expenses.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of donors contributed more than $17,000 through the Web site. But then, the high volume of traffic caused it to crash frequently and for long periods of time, the mayor's office said.

The city, therefore, was unable to collect contributions for several hours on Tuesday.

The site also crashed for 12 hours, beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday -- and again, periodically throughout Wednesday morning, the office said.

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich does not want taxpayers to pay a penny for the service, his spokesman said Wednesday.

"The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying [the initial costs] for a private event," spokesman John Franklin said.

"That's especially in a cash-strapped city, where people have been furloughed or even lost jobs."

During the Los Angeles Lakers championship parade this year, nearly 2,000 police were called in, at a cost of $2 million. The Lakers and private donors reimbursed the city for most of the expenses.

michael jackson coffin to be on display at memorial

michael jackson coffin to be on display at memorial

Los Angeles police confirmed today that Michael Jackson's body will be on display as the biggest names in black American music give the singer a superstar's send-off.

Tens of thousands of fans gathered around Los Angeles's Staples Center – the sports arena where Jackson rehearsed the night before his death – for a public memorial show due to start at 10am (1800 BST).

Before then, Jackson family members were due to hold a private funeral ceremony at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the city.

But they will not actually be putting the singer, who died 12 days ago after collapsing at his home, to rest.

William Bratton, the LA police chief, said that the gold-plated casket carrying Jackson's body would be taken across town for display at the public memorial.

He did not say how it would get there, but the celebrity news website TMZ.com – which was the first to report Jackson's death – said that it would be taken by helicopter if any safety issues arose.

A total of 8,750 pairs of tickets were handed out to the memorial show after more than 1.6 million fans applied via an online lottery.

The family has already announced that participants will include Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.

Also taking part is Shaheen Jafargholi, a 12-year-old from Swansea, who came to prominence singing a Jackson song on the last series of Britain's Got Talent. The singer was reportedly enchanted by the boy's performance and had lined him up to take part in his ill-fated comeback concerts in London.

As Jackson's relatives left the family home this morning for the initial private service, Mr Bratton said that he had deployed an extra 1,400 officers for the occasion. “This is probably the largest event we’ve planned for since the 1984 Olympics,” he told CNN.

Although the event at the Staples Centre is limited to 20,000 ticket holders, authorities feared that as many as 250,000 people could flood the area just to soak up the atmosphere and glimpse the stars appearing in the service and have asked for fans to stay home and watch on TV.

“We have no idea how many people are going to show up here other than those who have the tickets inside the event inside of Staples,” Mr Bratton said. “We’re not anticipating disorderly crowds -- just anticipating very large crowds."

It was not just Los Angeles that was hit by Jacksonmania, however. The memorial show was to be rebroadcast live in theatres across the United States and fans around the world had made plans to say their own farewell to the singer.

In London, some fans planned to watch the event on a big screen outside the 02 Arena, where Jackson was to have performed 50 comeback shows starting next week. Others said they would watch at home after the BBC cleared the schedule on BBC Two.

The cast of West End tribute show Thriller Live planned to hold a minute’s silence before the curtain. The theatre said it would dim its lights in memory of the star.

thirteen applications per second for michael jackson memorial tickets

thirteen applications per second for michael jackson memorial tickets

More than 1.2 million people had entered the global online lottery for the 17,500 available tickets 24 hours after the website for applications opened, organisers told The Daily Telegraph.

Applications are being received at a rate of around 50,000 per hour, or more than 800 per minute.

The registration website, which has occasionally crashed, has received more than four million individual hits, organisers said.

That contradicted an earlier statement by the Jackson family that the site had received 500 million hits in the first few hours.

There are fears touts may be using multiple e-mail addresses to register in the hope of re-selling the free tickets for huge sums.

Officials in Los Angeles have warned devotees of the "King of Pop" who do not get tickets to stay away from the city amid fears it will be swamped.

However, police are still preparing for anything up to 700,000 people turning up without tickets and trying to reach the venue.

The service is being held at the Staples Centre in downtown Los Angeles.

Large barricades have been erected around the arena to stop fans trying to storm the building.

Only 11,000 of the available tickets are for the service itself. The other 6,500 are for the Nokia Theatre nextdoor where fans will watch on three large screens.

A total of 8,750 winners will each receive two tickets. They will be informed on Sunday by email how to collect them.

The service will be broadcast live on television and the internet and is expected to attract a global audience of hundreds of millions.

A private ceremony for the family before the public memorial. There will be no funeral procession.