Michael Jackson’s body will make a poignant final journey to Neverland Ranch, it was reported on Tuesday, fueling speculation that the sprawling fantasy retreat could become a permanent memorial to the tragic pop icon.
A 30-car motorcade reportedly plans to escort the body today to the King of Pop’s 1,050 hectare estate, a monument to Jackson’s obsession with childhood that once included a fairground and a private zoo.
CNN and the celebrity news website TMZ.com said the Jackson family planned a public viewing tomorrow — which could draw a crush of fans to the isolated ranch north of Los Angeles.
Jackson’s death at the age of 50 last week has sparked a worldwide outpouring of tributes which continued on Tuesday with crowds gathering at New York’s famous Apollo Theater for a celebration of the star’s life.
Tomorrow’s public viewing could be an indication that the Jackson family has permanent plans for Neverland.
Santa Barbara County officials said on Tuesday they had received no formal notification of a memorial, but said departments were “preparing to accommodate a large event” if a request for a Neverland funeral was made.
Some fans say the star should be buried at the ranch and want it to be transformed into a shrine similar to Elvis Presley’s Graceland.
Neverland was named after the fantasy island of Peter Pan, Jackson’s inspiration who refused to grow up.
But the estate fell into disrepair after becoming an alleged crime scene in Jackson’s 2005 trial on child molestation charges. Jackson vacated the property following his acquittal and never lived there again.
The estate was reportedly on the verge of foreclosure before Jackson’s death as his extravagant lifestyle and mounting personal and legal problems took their toll on his finances.
The long-term fate of Neverland has been one of the myriad legal issues arising from Jackson’s sudden death.
A judge on Monday gave Jackson’s 79-year-old mother, Katherine, temporary control over his estate including Neverland and the rights to songs of the Beatles. She was also named temporary guardian of his three children.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Jackson drafted a will in 2002 that divided his estate between his mother, his three children and one or more charities.
Conspicuously absent was his father, Joe Jackson, who groomed his nine children into musical sensations but had an uneasy relationship with his son.
Lawyers for the Jackson family said Tuesday they had seen the will, which could be filed in court yesterday, reports said.
The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, reported that police detectives are seeking to identify and interview “multiple doctors” who treated Jackson in the years before his death.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema