Thursday, August 21, 2008

Issac Hayes' Funeral

First of all, Isaac Hayes had two funerals. There was the one on Monday that was open to the public and a private one on Sunday that was organized by the Scientologists. The Sunday one was filled to the brim with celebrities including Isaac's fellow scientologists Doug E. Fresh, Chick Corea, Tom Cruise, Anne Archer and Kelly Preston, as well as his non-Scientology celeb pals Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Bootsy Collins, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Sam Moore, Aretha Franklin, Chuck D, Maurice White, John Singleton, Richard Roundtree, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson any many others. Anyway, folks are whispering about how weird the Scientology funeral was because they barely mentioned his music, no one sang any of his songs and they didn't talk about his film or television career. They say the whole memorial, if you could call it that, was mostly his Scientology pals talking about themselves while being filmed by Scientology leaders. Also, according to witnesses, the Scientology speakers and performers — there were seven in all — made little reference to Hayes’ 11 grown children, just to his wife of three years and their 2-year-old son. The snubs were so blatant, Isaac's oldest daughter Veronica, who didn’t get to speak until nearly two and a half hours had passed, felt the need to declare, "Just to clear it up, there are 11 children." Isaac's family members are also upset because he was not buried next to his grandmother, but instead buried in what they referred to as "the white cemetery."