By ANTHONY CASTELLANO and KATIE KINDELAN
Pop star Michael Jackson's burial was delayed for three months due to a bitter dispute between his estate and sister Janet Jackson, a new book claims.
Details of the dispute are part of a new book called, "Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson," by Randall Sullivan. The book does not go on sale until next month but Vanity Fair has released excerpts in the November issue of the magazine.
According to Sullivan, Janet Jackson laid out $40,000 of her own money to have her brother buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks and Mortuaries in Glendale, Calif., but refused to let the funeral happen until the money was repaid.
Janet Jackson did not respond to ABC News' request for a comment.
Another story featured in the book tells of a purported mad race among some family members to remove items from Michael's house in the hours after he died on June 25, 2009.
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Sullivan reports that Michael's mother, Katherine Jackson, then 79 years old, arrived at the home and telephoned Grace Rwaramba, the recently terminated longtime nanny to Michael's children, asking about the location of money at Michael's home. Rwaramba is said to have described Michael's practice of hiding his cash in black plastic garbage bags and under the carpets.
Sullivan says that he was told by the owner of a private security company that dispatched a team to Michael's home the night of his death that he saw La Toya Jackson and her boyfriend load black plastic garbage bags into duffel bags and place them in the garage. But La Toya would claim that nearly all of her brother's money was gone by the time she arrived at his home.
A spokesperson for La Toya told ABC News that the claims about her are "completely untrue" and that the "boyfriend" Sullivan names in his book is in fact not her boyfriend, but instead her business partner.
Katherine Jackson's lawyer, Sandra Ribera, told ABC News, "Katherine Jackson's number one priority since the death of her son Michael has been the well being of Michael's children. The implication that on the night of her son's death Mrs. Jackson would be doing anything other than grieving with and consoling her grandchildren is simply ridiculous."
Sullivan's book also claims to shed light onto Katherine Jackson's alleged "abduction" this past summer in which the family matriarch was taken to Arizona from her home in Calabasas, Calif., - where she has lived with Michael's three children, Paris, 15, Prince Michael, 14, and Prince Michael II "Blanket," 10, since the late singer died. Three of her children cited her need for a "short vacation and rest."
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