Probate Judge Mitchell Beckloff approved the payment at a hearing this morning in downtown Los Angeles, after an attorney for the estate's administrators, John Branca and John McClain, assured him that the estate has enough cash to cover the expenses and that paying for the funeral will not affect its solvency.

'The expenses are extraordinary; however, Michael Jackson is extraordinary,' said attorney Jeryll Cohen, who told the judge the administrators did not object to the expenses. 'They may not be appropriate for an ordinary person, but Michael Jackson was not ordinary.'