Jackson memorial strikes elegant balance

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Balancing the delicate choices about entertainment vs. eulogy, the Michael Jackson memorial worked incredibly well as both without bowing to the expectations of either.

Tuesday's event as Staples Center was under a global microscope of fans, media and harrumphers, and few in the house -- and likely at home -- could argue its elegance, sense of purpose and breadth of emotions.

At the start, the throng inside the arena was entirely unsure how to react, even behave. The mood was trepidatious. Was this to be a celebration, with attendant whoops, hollers and applause? Or was it a somber occasion to be witnessed in hushed silence?

The latter prevailed before and when Smokey Robinson took the stage at 10:11 a.m. to read testimonials from absentees Diana Ross and Nelson Mandela. It soon became clear that he was sent out to avoid the memorial starting a half-hour late because he was followed by a break of almost 20 minutes.

There was no glitzy entertainment in the interim, nothing really for the crowd to do. It was a surreal experience to be among 17,000-plus people sitting quietly for the first dozen minutes or so, until many felt comfortable talking among themselves.

Overall, there were many more smiles and laughs than tears during the two-hour-plus event. There also was a deliberate and noticeable lack of flash, again straddling that line between the showbiz so many craved and the sorrow so many felt.

Once the speakers and singers began, there was an unhurried pace -- far from the showbiz spectacle many expected, even assumed. A performance followed each eulogy, and the song choices mostly eschewed Jackson's huge hits for lesser-known material sung with a purpose.

Everyone who stepped to the podium seemed to have a singular purpose in their words. The Jackson family's pastor, Lucious Smith, offered words of comfort after loss. Queen Latifah spoke for the legions of Jackson's fans, recalling how she and her brother tried to master the Robot after buying the "Dancing Machine" 45. Kobe Bryant stressed the King of Pop's huge-scale humanitarian efforts.

The three most affecting speakers -- Berry Gordy, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Brooke Shields -- offered up very succinct and very different points about Jackson's life.

Motown founder Gordy focused on the man (and the boy) as entertainer. "He was the consummate student -- he studied the greats, then became greater," he said. "Michael Jackson accomplished everything he dreamed of. I feel the King of Pop is not enough for him. I think he is simply the greatest entertainer who ever lived."

The crowd whooped and rose and whooped again.

Sharpton focused on Jackson as a bridge builder and a barrier smasher between races and cultures.

There was a little buzz in the room as he took the stage. The fiery orator seized the room immediately. "It was Michael Jackson who brought blacks and white and Latinos and Asians together," he boomed, earning one of the biggest cheers of the day.

He also offered one of the event's best lines in any context. Speaking directly to Jackson's three children -- and likely to his many detractors -- he said, "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy; it was strange what your daddy had to deal with."

Shields gave a perspective with which few can really identify: the loss of innocence of a child star. Her remembrances of their laughing together and just being "two little kids having fun" were particularly moving, driving home the fact that Jackson never really had a childhood -- and won't get a chance at golden years either.

The performances ranged from outstanding to "thanks for coming out." Stevie Wonder began by saying, "This is a moment that I wished I didn't have to see coming." His soulful, sorrowful, heart-wrenching delivery of "They Won't Go When I Go" easily was the best of the day. At the other end of the spectrum, Mariah Carey made a number of missteps during her version of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" early on.

The service had an undeniably Christian tone, which might raise a few eyebrows because of Jackson's high-profile conversion to Islam. But the service worked on so many levels: memorial and entertainment, mourning and celebration, remembrance and farewell. And after a finale of "We Are the World" that featured a stage packed with performers, the Jackson family was alone onstage.

Jermaine and Marlon lamented the loss of their brother, but it was Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris, who left the crowd -- and the world -- with the most moving words of the ceremony.

"Ever since I was born," she began, sobbing and barely mustering the strength to speak, "Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. And I just want to say I love him so much."

The wave of emotion washed over the room, with many audibly crying. It was an incredibly affecting end to an alternately somber and joyous day.