Carlene Trimarchi, of Seldon, Long Island, wears a glove and holds a Michel Jackson poster outside the Apollo theater where tribute to Michael Jackson is being held in New York on Tuesday. /AP-Yonhap

Pop singer Michael Jackson's funeral, slated for this Sunday, is likely to be the largest funeral service in history. Brian Oxman, a lawyer for the Jackson family, said the service will be the largest in entertainment history, attracting up to one million mourners. With the TV audience included, some 750 million people are expected to watch the ceremony for the late global pop icon.

In 1977 some 75,000 mourners thronged the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, to attend the funeral service for Elvis Presley. When the funeral ceremony for Princess Diana was held in Hyde Park, London, it was packed with 250,000 mourners.

Jackson's body will be moved from Los Angeles at 10 a.m. on Thursday to his Neverland Ranch, where he dreamed of becoming a modern-day Peter Pan, and put on public view for three days prior to the funeral. It is uncertain whether he will be buried at the ranch since California law forbids burials outside of cemeteries unless the remains are cremated.

Jackson's will, which was confirmed on Tuesday, was filed in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday. Drawn up on July 7, 2002, the will divides his assets between his mother Katherine Jackson (40 percent), his three children (40 percent) and charity organizations (20 percent), and gives custody of his children to his mother, AP reported on Tuesday.

The fact that the singer's father is not mentioned in the will reflects their turbulent relationship. Until becoming a symbol of an era, the late King of Pop suffered numerous hardships including alleged physical abuse by his father, which gradually wreaked havoc on his health. His nurse Cherilyn Lee told AP that he had asked her for a powerful sedative because he was fatigued and unable to sleep. But he squarely rejected taking illicit drugs, she added.