Ocean's Eleven star buried in (relative) peace

A host of stars, including Samuel L Jackson and Chris Rock, were a few amongst thousands who started arriving nearly four hours early on Saturday for the funeral of Bernie Mac. Legendary comedian Mac died on 9 August following complications from a bout of pneumonia.

The funeral in Chicago included letters of condolence from Oprah Winfrey and US presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Reverend Jesse Jackson was quoted outside the service: "He never turned [a] kid down for an autograph. He always had time to shake a hand. He was always that kid from Chicago who wanted to make everybody happy and everybody laugh."

Mac's most notable achievements include The Bernie Mac Show and The Original Kings of Comedy; his last film, Soul Men also stars Isaac Hayes, who died just two days after Mac. It's due for release in the US towards the end of the year.

Thankfully, reports suggest that Westboro Baptist Church's plans to picket the funeral were short-lived. The 'Church', not content with claiming that God 'hates fags', Canada and the Swedish, are now asserting that 'God Hates Bernie Mac'. 'All who knew Bernie, and lied to Bernie', they claim in a statement released to the media 'will again meet Bernie in hell.' Thankfully, it would seem that either their protests went unheard amongst the throng of mourners, or their threats are becoming more idle by the day - perhaps they can't afford the financial risk after being sued for $5million last year?

God loves Bernie Mac. May he rest in peace.