ROBERT GOULET - STARS TURN OUT FOR GOULET'S FUNERAL

Veteran singer/actor ROBERT GOULET's life was remembered at a celebrity-packed funeral in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday (09Nov07). Tony Bennett, Debbie Reynolds, Phyllis MCGuire and comedian Sarah Silverman and her chat show host boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel were among the mourners who filled up more than half of the 2,500-seat Shrine Of The Most Holy Redeemer church. The funeral service featured a performance of the Broadway star's song If Ever I Would Leave You and readings of several farewell poems he wrote before he died from lung disease on 30 October (07) in Los Angeles. One poem said: "There will be sadness and some tears, but shared memories will evoke laughter and that will make me happy. They should discern a chortle from my urn! My epitaph shall read: 'He left them smiling.'" Goulet performed for the last time in Syracuse, New York, on 20 September (07), where he staged his one-man show A Man And His Music, complete with a 15-piece orchestra.