Jennifer Hudson and Mariah Carey among stars due to perform at Michael Jackson memorial event drawing 250,000 people
Michael Jackson memorial liveblogging from 4pm

Michael Jackson’s family were today preparing to hold a low-key, private funeral service for the singer before a celebrity-packed memorial event which will see hundreds of thousands of fans descend on downtown Los Angeles to bid their final goodbyes.

The Jackson family has refused to discuss reports that a service for the 50-year-old, who died on 25 June, will take place at 8am local time (4pm BST) at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, the resting place of such names as Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Sammy Davis Jr, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye.

But the Rev Jesse Jackson, a family friend, confirmed to the BBC that a service would take place, saying it would be organised in accordance with the family’s Jehovah’s Witness faith.

It was still not known whether this would involve a burial. Some US TV networks were reporting today that Jackson’s body would subsequently be brought to the memorial service.

This will see stars including Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie and Jennifer Hudson perform before 18,000 people at the Staples Centre. Among the crowd will be some of the 8,750 fans who won tickets in a lottery that attracted 1.6m entries. Others will watch in an overflow theatre, where the memorial will be broadcast on a giant screen.

Police estimate that more than 250,000 people will crowd the streets around the service commemorating the 50-year-old singer. City blocks nearby have been sealed off with barriers, with only ticket-holding fans allowed through.

The event is being televised live by TV networks around the world and will be streamed on websites. BBC2 has cleared its schedule to carry the event.

Barack Obama briefly interrupted a visit to Russia to pay his respects before the service.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt he was one of the greatest entertainers of our generation, perhaps any generation,” he told CNN. “I think like Elvis, like Sinatra, like the Beatles, he became a core part of our culture.”

Also at the memorial service will be Brooke Shields, as well as Shaheen Jafargholi, the 12-year-old from Wales who reached the finals of the TV show Britain’s Got Talent. In his audition he fluffed his performance, but on being asked by Simon Cowell for a second song he chose Jackson’s Who’s Lovin’ You and wowed the audience.

Among those not attending are the singer’s ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, and his close friend, the actor Elizabeth Taylor.

Taylor announced last night on Twitter that she would stay away. “I just don’t believe Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others. How I feel is between us. Not a public event.” She had been asked to speak at the service, she said, but “I cannot be part of the public whoopla”.

Rowe, the mother of Jackson’s two oldest children, had planned to attend the memorial but backed out yesterday. “The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction,” her lawyer, Marta Almli, said in a statement.

According to reports, relatives including Jackson’s three children attended a brief “celebration of life” service at a the cemetery last night, holding a vigil by his casket.

Since the recipients of the public tickets to the memorial service were announced, a series of advertisements have appeared on sites such as eBay and Craigslist, offering tickets for tens of thousands of dollars. However, both sites told the BBC they were seeking to remove such adverts.

Jackson sold an estimated 750m albums during his musical career, which began as a child with the Jackson 5 and spanned three of the most celebrated pop albums ever: Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad. However, his celebrity was tainted by ridicule over his ever-changing appearance and a series of allegations concerning child abuse.

Coroners in LA are still investigating the cause of his sudden death and his possible use of painkillers and other prescription drugs.

There is also the tangled issue of Jackson’s huge assets and debts. A court filing has estimated that his net estate may still be worth more than $500m, including a 50% stake in the Sony-ATV music publishing catalogue, featuring songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.