When actresses Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds passed away in rapid succession at the end of 2016, there were informal outpourings of mourning, but there has been no official memorial service for the public until now. On March 25, fans will be invited to an event at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale to celebrate the lives of the beloved mother-daughter entertainer duo, Perez Hilton reports.
The ceremony will take place at 1pm in the cemetery’s theater, which seats 1,200 people. There will be performances by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and dancers from the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio. The headliner will be singer-songwriter James Blunt performing a special tribute song penned just for the occasion. Carrie Fisher and James Blunt were close, with Fisher even acting as godmother to Blunt’s son.
Billie Lourd, Fisher’s daughter and star of the television show Scream Queens, will make a public appearance at the ceremony, but will not be speaking or performing. A collection of personal items and memorabilia from Reynolds’ and Fischer’s Hollywood careers will also be on public display. Overflow from the theater space will be accommodated in the cemetery’s large lobby and at outdoor viewing screens, but if full capacity is reached before you arrive, the service will also be live-streamed online.
Debbie Reynolds is buried in a plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Next to her coffin, her daughter Carrie Fisher’s ashes were buried in an urn shaped like a Prozac pill. Public visits to the burial site will be allowed after the ceremony concludes.
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