IANS

London, Jan 13: Hollywood actress Brooke Shields says she really hoped that late pop legend Michael Jackson would jump out of his coffin while she spoke during his memorial service.

The actress fought hard to contain her grief when she gave an emotional speech at the public event held at the Los Angeles Staples Center to commemorate the King of Pop's life following his death from acute propofol intoxication last June and hoped he'd come out alive of the box, reports newsblaze.com.

"Did you see me shaking? Well, they didn't tell us that the coffin was going to be there. I thought - because there was a fantasy moment in my head - that he was going to jump out and start the concert," she said.

Shields, 44, who befriended Jackson when she was 13 also revealed that she hadn't been in touch with the "Thriller" hitmaker for a long time before his death, but often wanted to call him and offer her help.

"I had not only not spoken to him, I hadn't seen him in years," she said.

Asked if she had wanted to call him to offer her help, she said: "I did that, you know, 20 years ago. I mean the rhetoric didn't change, you know, I did that way back when, but anyway, I did my best."

The star was asked by Jackson's mother Katherine to give a speech at the service, but she ignored the words she was asked to deliver in favour of giving a more personal account of their friendship during her seven-minute address.

"They had written me out something. But I wrote my own thing and just had to do my own thing. I felt honoured to be a part of it," she said.