Michael Jackson finally laid to rest at Forest Lawn

Like any self-respecting pop star, Michael Jackson was more an hour late for his final appearance - his funeral service in Los Angeles last night. His golden casket was driven to the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale shortly after his family arrived in a motorcade of 31 vehicles.

The open-air service was held in front of the Great Mausoleum, a neo-classical building inspired by the Campo Santo in Genoa, where Jackson was to be laid to rest, surrounded by some of Hollywood's most famous showbusiness personalities - Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow among them.

Attending the funeral service were Jackson's parents, his three children - Prince Michael Jackson (above), Paris and Blanket - his sister Janet Jackson, his ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, and two close Hollywood friends, Elizabeth Taylor and Macaulay Culkin, both of whom stood by Jackson through his 2005 child molestation trial.

Culkin, who first made his name as the child star of Home Alone, told the court how had shared a bed with Jackson but that nothing untoward took place. "We had a really close relationship. We had this understanding with one another," the actor said. Claims that Jackson sexually molested him were "absolutely ridiculous", he said.

In recent days, Culkin, now 29, has had to deal with tabloid claims that he is the biological father of Blanket. A spokesman for the actor said the idea was "too preposterous for us to even acknowledge". ·