Entertainment
Horse-Drawn Hearse Carries Body Of Aaliyah
As Thousands Say Good Bye At Her Funeral
By Nicole Bode, Lola Ogunnaike
and Emily Gest
New York Daily Ne\\ s
It was a funeral fit for a princess.
Grappling \\ith the knowledge
they'd never see or hear 22-\ear-old
Aaliyah sing m person again,
thousands of heartbroken family
members, friends and fans wept at her
luneral Friday.
The Brookl}Ti-bom R&B star' and
actress died weeks ago \\ith eight
others m a plane crash m the Bahamas.
■‘'fhis wasn’t supposed to happen.
She was supposed to be here,” sobbed
fan Shermaine Johnson, 19, of
Brooklyn.
A glass-paneled hearse drawTi by
tvvo horses earned Aaln ah’s body the
four blocks from the Frank E.
Campbell Funeral Home on the upper
East Side to services at tlie Church of
St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Ave.
fhe hearse ’\\as festooned with
dozens of roses - especially pmk, her
favonte color
llie grief-stricken family - her
parents, Diane and Michael Flaughton,
and her brother, Rashad - walked
somberly behind the hearse and
clutched each other for support.
ITiey were followed by four dozen
other mourners, mcludmg Aaln'ah's
boNfhend, Roc-a-Fella Records honcho
Damon Dash, and her “Romeo Must
Die” co-star Deboy Lmdo. Many other
famous faces joined the 1,200 mvited
guests who crowded tlie chuich, while
11
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more than 1,000 fans stood outside.
Ten pallbearers carried the 800-
pound silver-plated coffin into the
church, where it was flanked by two
oversized pictures. One was of the
smger and the other was of her beloved
grandmother who died of breast cancer.
“You are the sun that mspired me
and the moon that got me through my
mghts - love, Aaliyah,” read the quote
with her grandmother's photo.
A special VIP section was
established for the dozens of music
world royalty who attended, mcludmg
rappers Sean (P. Diddy) Combs,
Miss\- Elliott, Jay-Z and Lil’ Kim.
Will Hollywood Say ‘Hasta
la vista’To Movie Violence?
By Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
Just when it seemed that
HoU^'Avood movies could not be more
mearungless, they got more
meaningless.
Last week’s total eclipse of the
culture obliterated an}’ thoughts about
nearly e\ er> thing else, and far, fk-
down on the list of things we weren’t
thinkmg about were the mo\ ies.
For a day, most of the studios
weren't thmkmg about them, either.
'ITiey shut down on both coasts on
Tuesda\', and some w'ere still
shuttered Wednesday and 'I'hursda>'.
Nobody knew how far this black
spectacle would reach. Nobod>’ knew
which targets imght be next. And we
w ere all o\ en\hehned, emotionally
frozen m place
Sept. 11, 2001, was ahnost
literally the day the Earth stood still.
Is It too soon to talk about tlie
potential impact of the massacre on
the culture, on entertammenf ’
Ceilainl}'. its mmiediate unpact was
more profound tlian any e\ ent m U. S.
histon’. It shut doun ahnost e\ ery
\ enue w itli a box office, trom
Broadw ay to the megaplex to the
sports arena.
There \vas little stomach to
entertain, or to be entertained
Some busmess went on regardless.
Two major-studio mo\ies -
Paramount’s inner-cit}'. Little League
baseball drama “Hardball'’ and
Columbia’s ps\chological thnller
“'ITie Glass House’’ - opened last
Frida)’ as scheduled. But little notice
w as taken, especialh’m New' York.
\A'here cntics screenings liad been
canceled.
Putting the best possible spin on
his bad timing. “Hardball’’ director
Brian Robbins told Variet}', “It’s
hard to say,' Go see a movie,’ but it
sort of feels like if you are going to
want some entertainment,
(“Hardbalf is) a mo\ie to see.”
Somehow-, “escapisf ’
entertainment seems like the last
thing w e w ant or need right now. and
maybe for a \ er\’ long tune. The
drama produced by the w ould-be
martSTs w ho attacked the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon is
still m its hideous first act. m which
thousands of indi\ idual human
tragedies - e\ en’ one of them more
important than any mo\ ie e\ er made
- ha\ e been mtroduced. It's essential
that we absorb and w eigh e\ er\’
horrible detail, as the\’ are re\ ealed,
to trs’ to understand and be able to
explam the e\ent in wa\ s that don't
rob our children of their innocence.
As far remo\ ed from this reality
as mo\ies are. there are profound
lessons m it for the people who
determine w hat rele\ ance their
products w ill ha\ e in our In’es.
Among the accepted tenets of
Hollyw ood is that m tunes of
trouble, people w ant escapism. That
explams w h>’ all those Astaire-
Rogers and '‘nim Man” lihns were
made during the Depression and the
MGM musicals m the war years.
But those w ere times of common
sacrifice, w hen e\ er\ body w as under
the same 3’oke and pullmg in a clear
direction
I’he escapist myth \vas rel’iited
b\ the sociopolitical re\olution of
the ‘60s and '70s, whenHolh’wood
chose to be on the cultural Iront Ime.
almost out ofa sense of sur\ i\ al. . r | ^
Nearb\’ v\ere actor Jet Li and Glad\ s
Knight. \\ ho was mamed to Aaliyah’s
uncle. Ban"}' Haiikerson.
Rashad Haughton delivered a 15-
mmute eulog}' Qiat brought hundreds
of mourners - mcludmg boxer Mike
T\’son and smger Busta Rhymes - to
tears. Rashad described his younger
sister as a force who gave him strengtli.
“Aaliyah, you left, but I’ll see you
ahva\’s next to me and I can see you
smilmg through the sunshme,” he said.
"When our life is over, our book is
done. I hope God keeps me strong untU
I see her again.”
Rashad read the names of the eight
other crash victims anci
mourners to pra}’ for them as well.
As the church choir sang "Ave
Maiia." tlie mourners sat m silence as
the hour-long Catholic funeral Mass
ended.
Diane Haughton stood, placed her
left hand on her daughter’s colTm and
w alked alongside it until she reached
the church doors. As she and other
mourners left, they sang one of
Aaliyah's songs, "One m a Million.”
On the church steps, Diane Haughton
stood a few feet from her daughter's
coffin and, with tears in her eyes,
released a smgle white dove mto the
sky. In total, 22 doves were released,
to svmbolize each year of Aaliyah's
hl'e.
As ram began to fall late Frida\’
afternoon, 100 mourners followed
Aaliyah's hearse to Femchfl'Cemeten
and Mausoleum in Hartsdale.
Westchester County’, w here they spent
30 nunutes say’uig a tinal goodbye.
After Knight sang “You Touched
My Life." mourners, mcludmg Tyson-
tiled past the coffin to touch it one last
time. Then it was slipped mto a cr>pt,
covered with cream-colored Italian
marble. An mscnption will be added
later
Leon Bates, an internationaly renowned pianist, will perform
November 4, 2001 in Seabrook Auditorium. Bates has emerged as
one of America’s leading pianist. He has performed at Carnegie
Hall, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Philadelphia Academy
of Music, and The Hollywood Bowl. ' ' '' ' * "