The Michael Jackson memorial service is today and I find that I’m honestly broken up about Jackson’s death. When I first heard that Jackson passed I wasn’t all that surprised, but I’ve learned much more about him over the past week. I feel really sorry for what he must have gone through the past few years of his life. I’ve read up his trial, and I believe he was falsely accused by people who were out for large sums of money. He was mischaracterized and hounded by the media for years. In the end he became a kind of shell of a man, reduced to this caricature and unable to cope without powerful drugs. How sad that only with his death have so many of us realized the effects our dismissive half-judgments had on his life.

People worldwide are heartbroken over Jackson’s death and his memorial today is set to be a huge star-studded tribute. Some of Jackson’s closest friends aren’t going to be at the public event, though. Jackson’s second wife and the mother of his two older children, Debbie Rowe, won’t be there. She had an altercation with paparazzi yesterday and is very wary of the press. She said in a 2003 rebuttal to the Bashir documentary, “Living With Michael Jackson,” that her relationship with the pop star ended because she couldn’t handle the public pressure and didn’t even want to go to the grocery store for fear of seeing coverage of her family. Elizabeth Taylor also won’t be at the memorial at all. She posted on her Twitter account that “I just don’t believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others. How I feel is between us. Not a public event.”

The confirmed attendees include Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, John Mayer and Smokey Robinson. It’s unclear who will perform:

The Jackson family just announced everyone who will participate in tomorrow’s memorial — and here’s the list:

Ron Boyd (family friend), Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, Andrae Crouch Choir, Berry Gordy, Jennifer Hudson, Shaheen Jafargholi (finalist on Britain’s Got Talent), Magic Johnson, Martin Luther King III, Bernice A. King, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Brooke Shields, Pastor Lucious Smith (family friend), Usher and Stevie Wonder.

[From TMZ]

The Jackson family will have a private memorial service for Michael at Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills this morning. The family is now at their home in Encino, California. It is rumored that Michael Jackson’s body will be transported from his private funeral to the Staples center. TMZ reports that “his body will take center stage” at the memorial, although it’s thought that he will have a closed coffin.

You can watch Michael Jackson’s memorial live on CNN.com.

Photos are from 11/16/06. Credit: WENN.com