It's the late Liz Taylor - The Sun

DAME ELIZABETH TAYLOR kept mourners waiting 15 minutes at her funeral - because it was her dying wish to be late.

The screen goddess's family and a handful of invited friends arrived to see her laid to rest in the same mausoleum as her pal MICHAEL JACKSON.

They turned up at Forest Lawn cemetery near Los Angeles for Thursday's service and were left puzzled when it failed to start on time at 2pm.

The awkward silence was finally broken when someone - as scripted by Liz herself - announced: "She even wanted to be late for her own funeral."

Her joke from beyond the grave immediately lightened the mood. Liz, who died of heart failure on Wednesday aged 79, lay in a 7,000 wooden casket draped in violets - the colour of her eyes.

In the hour-long service, actor COLIN FARRELL recited The Leaden Echo And The Golden Echo. One of Liz's ten grandchildren, trumpeter RHYS TIVEY, performed Amazing Grace.

And New York's Broadway dimmed its lights for a minute in tribute.

p.samson@the-sun.co.uk