LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson will be buried at a Los Angeles cemetery on Tuesday shortly before a gala tribute to the pop icon at an arena here, the city's acting mayor said.The funeral will take place at Forest Lawn Cemetery at 8:00 am (1500 GMT), two hours before the memorial service at the downtown Staples Center, Jan Perry told the local NBC television affiliate Monday.
The funeral would end speculation that the family may wait to clear legal hurdles to bury the King of Pop at his Neverland Ranch, his fantasy estate north of Los Angeles that some fans wanted to turn into a memorial.
Perry, a city councilwoman, is in charge of Los Angeles as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is on vacation in South Africa.
Forest Lawn, located near some Hollywood studios, is one of Los Angeles' best-known cemeteries and is no stranger to celebrities.
Screen legends Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow are buried at Forest Lawn.
The cemetery also tries to preserve pre-Hollywood aspects of US history. It features a monument to the country's first president, George Washington.
Jackson's death has unleashed a flurry of fan tributes and media attention, raising fears that his funeral would turn into a circus.
Some 1.6 million people applied for 8,750 registrants to win tickets for the service at the Staples Center arena and a neighboring arena, where the event will be shown on giant screens.
One report said that Jackson's mother Katherine, 79, the guardian of her estate, quashed plans for a procession of his body through Los Angeles, finding the idea ghoulish and traumatic for the King of Pop's three children.
The family had initially considered a funeral at Neverland, some 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of Los Angeles in tony Santa Barbara wine country.
But the plan met opposition in some quarters and presented legal complications as families generally cannot bury bodies in residential areas.
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