British fans of Michael Jackson are being given the chance to enter a lottery for tickets to attend the star’s memorial service in Los Angeles.
US reports say Jackson’s family may first hold a service at the Forest Lawn Mortuary on Tuesday and a motorcade will then head to the Staples Center - owned by concert promoter and Jackson backer AEG Live - which is the home of the LA Lakers. There will also be a simulcast at the nearby Nokia Theatre when the service begins at 10am local time (6pm UK time).
A website lottery has been set up for fans to obtain the 17,500 free tickets - 11,000 for the Staples Center and 6,500 for Nokia - which are limited to two per person. Earlier it emerged only US residents could apply but organisers have now said anyone in the world can register. The Staples Center site is said to have had hundreds of millions of hits since the announcement. The venue was the site of Jackson’s last rehearsals for his planned 50-concert comeback tour in London backed by AEG Live and due to start on July 13.
Registration will end at 2am UK time on Sunday with the 8,750 successful applicants drawn at random and then notified by email between 7pm on Sunday to 4am on Monday UK time. Meanwhile, video clips of a rehearsal two nights before the 50-year-old died on June 25 have been released by AEG. They show Jackson looking thin but performing more like his old superstar self. However, the powerful sedative Diprivan - an anaesthetic widely used in operating theatres - is said to have been found in Jackson’s home. Also known as Propofol, it is administered intravenously and is very unusual to have in a private home. Elsewhere, lawyers for Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe say she has yet to decide if she will fight for custody of their two children.
Rowe was reported to have told a US TV station that she wanted to take over the care of children Prince Michael and Paris Michael. But her lawyer Eric George said nothing had been confirmed and that Ms Rowe was still weighing up her options. He said: “Debbie has not reached a final decision concerning pending custody proceedings. “I believe that the pending custody proceedings are the most private, most sensitive of matters as they impact the lives and the fates of young children. “So once again: the truth is that Debbie has not reached a final decision concerning the pending custody proceedings.”
Mr George added: “When Debbie does take a position in the public forum of a court, those positions will be conveyed to all interested parties. “In the meantime I would very much appreciate everyone’s respect for Debbie’s privacy at this time.” Earlier this week it emerged that Jackson’s will specifically cuts out Ms Rowe, who he first met in the mid-1980s, when he had treatment for the skin condition vitiligo. They divorced ten years ago and Jackson won full custody of the youngsters. The singer’s will sees his entire estate left to a family trust which will provide for his 79-year-old mother Katherine as well as Prince, Paris and his youngest child, seven-year-old Prince Michael II, who is known as Blanket and was born to a surrogate mother. The will, written in July 2002, also names Katherine as the children’s guardian, but if she is unable to care for them, it says singer Diana Ross will step in.
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