Elizabeth Taylor Fashionably Late to Own Funeral

Elizabeth Taylor was laid to rest in a Los Angeles cemetery yesterday following a small private ceremony attended by around 40 friends and family. In keeping with instructions left by the screen legend, the service began 15 minutes after the announced start time, AP reports. "She even wanted to be late for her own funeral," her publicist says.

Taylor was laid to rest near her good friend Michael Jackson in Forest Lawn cemetery, the final resting place of stars including John Wayne and James Stewart. At the service, Colin Farrell recited the poem "The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo" by Gerard Manley Hopkins and family members read other selected works, Variety reports. Protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church—which had threatened to picket Taylor's funeral—were nowhere to be seen. (More Elizabeth Taylor dead stories.)