This summer at Dearly Departed Tours, business has never been better -- and that was before Michael Jackson's sudden death. In the days since, the company that drives tour buses to spots where celebrities have met their end has added a stop at the rented Holmby Hills mansion where the pop star collapsed.
People are so fascinated with Hollywood's history of death and crime that Dearly Departed has added 100 tours a month compared with a year ago, said owner Scott Michaels. His clientele have always wanted to see where the Manson family murders took place, where Marilyn Monroe lived. These days, Michaels said, the first thing people ask about is the Jackson site.
That leads to the inevitable speculation about the final disposition of his remains, so far shrouded in mystery.
"If he's buried somewhere where the public has access to it, it's going to be Graceland West," Michaels said.
The real Graceland, Elvis Presley's world-famous mansion, attracts 600,000 visitors annually and is one of the top home tours in the country. A "VIP tour" that includes a swing past Presley's grave costs $69 per adult.
Assuming Jackson's body ends up in a tomb that fans can find, the spot could become a shrine for the ages, experts in celebrity worship say, akin to Graceland or Doors frontman Jim Morrison's grave in Paris, a mecca for rock pilgrims, a magnet for makeshift memorials and an eternal nuisance to French authorities.
Wonder why there's no pilgrimage to the tombs of rock stars John Lennon and Kurt Cobain? Their families had their remains cremated, with ashes either scattered or given to a survivor, leaving no shrine for posterity, no scene for the hordes.
On the other hand, visit Bob Marley's mausoleum in Jamaica, said to be sacred to Rastafarians, and you can buy souvenirs of the late reggae star at the adjoining tourist center.
Visitors steadily trek to Monroe's grave in Westwood -- and for those who can't make the trip, there are video tours on YouTube.
Soon after news of Jackson's collapse June 25, mourners and looky-loos jammed the street outside his home. Michaels waited five or six days to bus in customers, after "the mental people started leaving."
Some might object to such a description of celebrity death-worshipers, the kind of devotees who imbue these grave sites with the hushed reverence accorded saints' tombs. But even academic research suggests that celebrity death fixation can get a little, well, crazy.
