More than 17,000 people will get to attend Michael Jackson’s memorial service in Los Angeles tomorrow.
Eleven thousand will get to see the memorial inside the Staples Center. Another 6,500 will watch it on video in the Nokia Theatre next door.
There will also be a free worldwide video feed and five networks will be carrying the ceremony.
Officials predict hundreds of thousands of fans will show up even though they don’t have tickets. The assistant police chief says the crowd could be as many as 700,000 people.
Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Kobe Bryant and Brooke Shields are slated to be part of the all-star tribute.
The representatives for Jackson’s family released a list of participants Monday. Also on the list are Motown founder Berry Gordy, Lionel Richie, John Mayer, Usher, Jennifer Hudson and Martin Luther King III and his sister Bernice.
An attorney for Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe will not be there, saying her attendance would be “an unnecessary distraction.”
Jackson’s memorial will be beamed live to any TV station that wants to carry it. So far, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and E! Entertainment are among the networks that have already announced they’ll go live.
ABC is sending Charles Gibson to Los Angeles for the story, setting aside its normal daytime programming. Katie Couric will be at Staples Center for CBS, although the network has not said if it’ll offer live coverage of the memorial.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Filed under: Celebrity Juice, News to Me | Tagged: ABC, CBS, CNN, jacko, king of pop, L.A, Los Angeles, memorial service, michael jackson, MSNBC, NBC, staples center
