Elizabeth Taylor fashionably late for own funeral

ELIZABETH Taylor made her final grand entrance in true movie star style today - by being deliberately 15 minutes late to her own funeral.

Elizabeth Taylor at Michael Jackson's funeral

ELIZABETH Taylor made her final grand entrance in true movie star style today - by being deliberately 15 minutes late to her own funeral.

Showing a sense of humor to the end, the Hollywood icon had requested the private service at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California, begin behind the 2pm schedule, People magazine reported.

"She even wanted to be late to her own funeral,'' a family representative said in a statement.

The hour-long service _ held at same celebrity cemetery where her close friend Michael Jackson is entombed _ was attended by about 40 of Taylor's close friends and family, according to The Wrap.

Actor Colin Farrell, a friend of Taylor, recited the poem The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo by Manley Hopkins.
Farrell's reading was followed by other selections read by Taylor's son Michael Wilding, her grandson Tarquin Wilding, and her daughter Lisa Burton Tivey.

Taylor's grandson, musician Rhys Tivey, also performed a solo trumpet rendition of Amazing Grace at the ceremony, which included a closed casket draped with gardenias, violets and lily of the valley.

The screen goddess was originally expected to be laid to rest at the cemetery where both her parents were buried, but instead she was placed at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park _ where the late actress' longtime friend, Jackson, and many other Hollywood legends, including Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart, were also laid to rest.

Taylor's body will be placed at the Great Mausoleum on the cemetery's grounds, in a gated crypt named the Sanctuary of Ascension. This area is private and off limits to the general public.

Taylor died early Wednesday at the age of 79 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, where she had been for the past two months while undergoing treatment for congestive heart failure.

Her swift burial is in line with Jewish tradition. Taylor converted to Judaism in 1959 before her marriage to her fourth husband, Jewish singer Eddie Fisher.

Rabbi Jerry Cutler, who conducted the funeral services for comedian Milton Berle and actor Walter Matthau, presided over the traditional Jewish ceremony for Taylor.

The Glendale Police Department said "everything [was] going smoothly'' and they brought in extra officers to oversee the press and throngs of fans who flocked to the cemetery gates.