Elizabeth Taylor asked to be late to own funeral

Gallay/Getty

Elizabeth Taylor was laid to rest on Thursday in California.

The screen legend was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Thursday in a small private ceremony that started 15 minutes later than scheduled.

"She even wanted to be late for her own funeral," a family representative announced, saying Taylor had left instructions asking for the late start.

Helicopters buzzed overhead and a handful of fans milled about as black limos carried about four dozen relatives and close friends into the same cemetery as her beloved friend, Michael Jackson.

"It's an honor to be here," said fan Olivia Morrissette, 50, a legal secretary from Glendale.

"She left a legacy with her beauty, her acting and her caring for others. This is a special place now, with Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson."

Taylor, 79, who died Wednesday of congestive heart failure, was entombed in the same large, multilevel mausoleum as the King of Pop.

Her closed casket was draped with a blanket of gardenias, violets and lily of the valley.

"They're in heaven now. She's on a throne like Cleopatra and Michael is dancing around her," Taylor and Jackson's mutual pal Arnold Klein told the Daily News.

"They were the best of friends and two of the most generous humanitarians I ever met," he added.

The multi-denominational service, officiated by Rabbi Jerry Cutler, lasted about an hour and included a poetry reading by actor Colin Farrell, who recited Gerard Manley Hopkins' "The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo."

That was followed by more readings by Taylor's son, Michael Wilding, her grandson, Tarquin Wilding, and Tarquin's daughter, Liza Burton Tivey.

A larger memorial service is expected in the next two weeks, actress Debbie Reynolds said.

"I don't like funerals but I will go out of respect, and I'm sure her family will rejoice in the fact they had a wonderful mother and friend - a great and glamorous woman," Reynolds, 78, said.

Reynolds said she forgave Taylor for stealing her husband, 1950s crooner Eddie Fisher, and considered her "the most beautiful woman in the world."

"It was a long time ago, and we overcame it," she said of the once bitter rivalry.

"I warned Eddie she would throw him out after a year and a half, and she did just that when she met Richard Burton. That sort of warmed my heart and made me feel a lot better.

"We laughed about that."

Taylor had been hospitalized for six weeks before her death.

Reynolds said the "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" star was in "severe" pain when the two spoke by phone three weeks ago.

"She was not feeling well and not getting better, no matter how hard she was fighting. She said it was depressing," Reynolds said.

"She wished that it could be a little bit easier and said that it would be easier for her soon. She was trying to be very brave, but I think she was feeling her mortality and maybe was a little nervous about it all."

Actress Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Reynolds and Fisher, praised Taylor on Twitter.

"If my father had to divorce my mother for anyone - I'm so grateful that it was Elizabeth," she said.

ndillon@nydailynews.com

Tami Donaldson Cindy Crawford Sanaa Lathan Penélope Cruz Melissa Sagemiller