LOS ANGELES — One of Michael Jackson’s brothers charged that media helicopters disrupted the pop star’s burial service at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale on Thursday.
“I was dismayed last night and again today at the coverage I saw on television of our ceremony for Michael,” Randy Jackson said in a statement Friday.
“We had asked the media to respect the privacy and the sanctity of this event; to give us one moment of privacy to mourn as a family out of the public spotlight. Unfortunately, despite a no-fly zone around Forest Lawn, many media organizations decided to ignore our wishes.
“They employed helicopters that not only surreptitiously recorded our private family ceremony, but also severely disrupted it.”
About 200 of Michael Jackson’s relatives and friends attended the burial.
The service, scheduled for sunset, became a nighttime gathering as guests awaited the late arrival of Jackson’s family. The family members were ferried through the park’s towering gates in a fleet of luxury cars and took their places in the front row of white folding chairs.
The Jackson brothers, in black suits and red ties, filed past a portrait of Michael, a confident smile on his face. His children made their way to their seats. A bespectacled Paris Jackson, his young daughter, wearing a dark dress and her long hair in a ponytail, watched soberly.
The burial was supposed to be private, and Randy Jackson urged the media not to broadcast the aerial footage.
