I agree with Roy MacGregor on this:
They have written scholarly books and journals on the outpouring of
grief that followed the assassination of John Lennon and the accidental
death of Princess Diana in that Paris automobile accident.
Both may pale, however, depending on what happens today in Los
Angeles, where Michael Jackson, who could find no rest on earth, will
be said to have finally found peace. In truth, it will be nothing of
the kind – his brothers already spatting over whether to involve
religion in the hockey-rink memorial and police concerned that the
tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of fans who find themselves
without “tickets” to the funeral will attempt to storm the Staples
Center.
No one fully comprehends what it is that makes certain people more
upset about the death of a celebrity they have never met than they
might be over the passing of a grandparent. Some experts have
speculated that this faux mourning, or long-distance mourning, whatever
it might be called, is actually the mourner mourning some aspect of
themselves.
(...)The truly incredible thing about long-distance mourning is that it
seems, somehow, to make people feel good about themselves rather than
badly for themselves, as in the case of a death of someone truly in the
family.
It’s an easy, and largely harmless, emotional hit – you see a far
smaller version of it around baggage carousels in large airports, where
voyeurs will openly stare at a teary reunion, simply imagining what
such joy or sorrow must feel like.
And, of course, there is always the chance that you or your
handwritten note or even your bouquet of flowers will appear on
television – thereby proving you were a legitimate part of the event.
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