Even in death there is competition! Who attracted the largest TV audience, worldwide, Michael Jackson or The Princess of Wales, Diana? Who attracted the most respected celebrities and dignitaries from around the world, Michael or Diana?

Well, if one considers Mariah Carey’s tacky attempt at Jackson’s own 1970’s hit, ‘I’ll Be There’, failing to find those top notes that Jackson found with such ease, or Usher’s ghoulish touching of Jackson’s gold casket, (that we were led to believe was occupied by Jackson’s body), as any accolade to The King of Pop, then by comparison, Princess Diana wins hands down!

Carey has since apologized, or made an excuse for her poor performance in which she dueted with Trey Lorenz, the R&B singer with whom she’d previously sung at her 1992 appearance on MTV Unplugged, citing her emotions as the reason for her poor delivery!

By comparison, on September 6th 1997, The Princess of Wales’ funeral retained all the respect, dignity and fundamental decency associated with a royal funeral. But on July 7th 2009, as about 31 million people in the United States watched Jackson’s ‘final show’ at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, there was anything but the regal protocol associated with a king or princess. It became fact, even before the end of Diana’s funeral, and it continued to be cited as fact afterwards, that 2.5 billion people, half of the world’s population, were all sitting around their TVs, watching Princess Di’s funeral.

But to be fair, when Michael himself was asked in 1992 about how he would like his funeral to go, he said: “It’s going to be the greatest show on earth. That’s what I want. Fireworks and everything.”

And apart from the fireworks (which doubtless will follow in the not too distant future) Jackson received the send off he wished for, as it’s thought around one billion people across the globe saw him wheeled into the Staples Center by his single, silver studded gloved brothers.

How different from the 6 horse drawn carriage attributed to the British Princess on that balmy Autumn day in 1997, when Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, actors, religious leaders, heads of states and singers alike, arrived in their droves for the most somber occasion the world had witnessed since the death of John F Kennedy. And of course watched by billions around the globe and of course this does not include people watching online, which for Jackson’s memorial gives a much bigger audience now than in Princess Di’s day.

But yesterday was lacking not only in taste, but lacking in celebrities. Where was Justin Timberlake? Where was Madonna? Where was Macaulay Culkin? Where was Sir Paul McCartney? Where was Britney Spears? Not even the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, attended the memorial which was, until Tuesday, drawing such great comparisons with the funeral for Princess Diana.

Figures have since revealed that the audience for the dead-Jackson memorial was virtually identical to the number of people who watched the reading of the live-Jackson molestation trial verdict on June 13th  2005.
It was also on par with the number of people who watched Kris Allen crowned the latest “American Idol.” It was about 10 million more people than watched President Reagan’s funeral in 2004. It numbered about 6 million fewer viewers than watched the most recent “Academy Awards.” And it attracted less than half the crowd that collected in front of their sets to watch President Clinton’s apology address to the nation in August of 1998 following his affair with the White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

But bringing up the rear, and adding to the world wide number count, were the public in the United Kingdom, who on all accounts mustered an interest that rated 6 million viewers.

But its not over, as they say, until the fat lady sings. So in the near future we’re sure there will be a park, a highway, a stadium or a statue named after the deceased Michael Jackson.

Diana has been remembered through a fantasy garden for children and a seven-mile walkway snaking through London parks following the Diana Memorial Committee’s choice to remodel the children’s playground in Kensington Gardens, where it is now known as the Peter Pan Playground because the playground was created in 1906 with money from Sir James Matthew Barrie, author of Peter Pan.

Now there’s an idea for The King of Pop’s siblings!

But doubtless the remaining Jacksons will be far too busy digging through the achieves of MJ’s unpublished music and songs and using the incoming $$$$ to benefit no one but themselves.

Our money is on a Heal the World concert for Michael and a myriad of salutes to Jackson over the next year, with a good chance of a number one album, and single, chart position for Christmas 2009.

The 2010 Emmy’s, the 2010 Oscars, the Golden Globes and the MTV Video Music Awards will be saturated with Michael Jackson tributes, and then to top that there are sure to be a few struggling singer/song writers out there who will at this very minute be composing their own version of, Wilson Pickett’s, Abraham, Martin & John or Elton John’s Candle in the Wind, apropos, Princess Diana, in memory of their dear departed King of Pop!