California is a lovely, cash-strapped state where public workers are rewarded with heavily slashed paychecks while our governor spends his own money on Humvees and life-sized replicas of himself. In short, California is the perfect place to host the Michael Jackson memorial because like the entertainer itself, it is famous and it's already spent all of its money. And yet this Jackson service will be a costly affair, indeed. How much will it drain from already-empty state coffers?
$2.5 million, E!'s Leslie Gornstein claims. Most of that money will go toward the 1400 police workers and countless public workers designed to keep the peace outside LA's Staples Center, where the Jackson family and promoter AEG will be holding tomorrow's memorial. Naturally, AEG has declined to pick up the extra costs incurred by the state at this time. Oh no, the characteristic compassion we've come to associate with Joe Jackson and the tyrannical promotional company AEG has been dashed.