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Soon after word of Michael Jackson's death got around his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, bereft fans began looking for a focal point to gather and join in group-sings of "You Are Not Alone," "Remember the Time" or "Gone Too Soon." Finding the appropriate shrine wasn't an easy task. The streets leading up to Jackson's rented home in Bel Air and his old family homestead in Encino were blocked off by police. Hundreds turned up outside the UCLA Medical Center, where the star had been pronounced dead early in the afternoon, but by dusk, the atmosphere had turned into more of a party — complete with T-shirt vendors, impersonators, and dance-offs — than vigil. (Read about how fans mourned Jackson's passing in New York here.)

Devotees typically end up holding impromptu wakes around a celebrity's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but access to Jackson's prime spot in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre was blocked all day by the red carpet for the premiere of Bruno. There was even word that Jackson's star had been temporarily removed from Hollywood Blvd. just prior to his death, to prevent damage from scaffolding. That was just one more indignity for fans who felt their idol had been persecuted in life by the media and was now being punk'd in death by Sasha Baron Cohen.

(Look back at Michael Jackson's career, in photos.)

So, in an only-in-L.A. transference, grievers gathered around a Walk of Fame star for a different Michael Jackson: the much older, much whiter, still-living talk show host who's been a staple of Southern California radio for decades. Told that the Vine Street star their tears were falling on really belonged to a more obscure MJ, some mourners refused to believe it, while others didn't care, given the paucity of legitimate King-of-Pop altars.

(Photos of fans' memorials to the King of Pop.)

"They said Michael's real star is in front of the Chinese, but I came here to get a photo for the family anyway," said Miakka Russell, originally from Georgia, holding her smartphone in the air to get a shot of the candles and roses, jostling with TV crews for position. "I think I should get custody of Bubbles. I'd be good with Bubbles ..."

"They're disrespecting him. Get off the star!" said Christina Williams, objecting to cameramen stepping into the tribute area. "We were in Popeye's Chicken at Hollywood & Cahuenga when we heard he passed, and we just stopped eating. It doesn't seem like it's real yet." The Glendora resident, born the same year as Jackson, had earlier led the faithful assembled around the sidewalk memorial in prayer. "When we saw him accused of things he didn't do, it made us depressed, made us cry. People just wanted money from him because he was kind-hearted. He was good in business but a child at heart, emotionally damaged from his childhood. Maybe this was God's way of making everybody stop bothering him. He's at rest. Nobody is accusing him of anything now."

Williams had a long history of showing up for Jackson, at public and not-so-public appearances. "The first time I ever saw him in person was at Cedars-Sinai, when his hair got hurt [in a 1984 accident while filming a Pepsi commercial]. We were watching TV and I said to my husband at the time, 'Get in the car, I want to go see him!' " She used her knowledge of hospitals to sneak in and get a look at Jackson in a wheelchair in the emergency room. "When I was a little girl, I wanted to marry him. He probably would have died before he did if I married him, though, because I heard he doesn't like feisty women."