They aren’t chasing selfies, they’re chasing forever.
For most, a celebrity obsession entails rewatching movies they starred in or repeatedly buying pricey concert tickets to see them live. For Anthony Jabin, 62, it means spending eternity next door to where they’re buried.
In 2024, the tech investor took his lifelong fascination with Marilyn Monroe to an extreme when he shelled out $195,000 for a one-space mausoleum crypt near the bombshell’s final resting place at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
Not a family plot. Not a place for future generations. Just one spot for him, bought at Julien’s Auctions, next to his leading lady.
“I bought the crypt next to Marilyn Monroe because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend eternity with the most iconic actress of all time — and she’s definitely my favorite blonde!” Jabin enthusiastically told The Post.
The tech investor, whose future space sits one row above and four spaces to the left of Monroe’s, revealed that he sends the late Hollywood starlet “flowers on her birthday every year.”
That is not casual fandom — that is commitment.
Jabin’s love for the (famous) dead isn’t as unusual as it might sound, considering he’s one of many paying upwards of six figures to secure burial spots near beloved movie stars, music legends, cultural icons and even political figures, transforming parts of America’s most famous cemeteries into the ultimate gated communities.
Creepy? Romantic? Obsessive?
Welcome to the afterlife economy.
LA-based Hollywood Forever Cemetery sees this celeb fascination firsthand.
Yogu Kanthiah, co-owner of Hollywood Forever, which hosts concerts, movie screenings, yoga classes, and tours, told The Post that many families specifically seek out celeb proximity.
“Over the years, many families have told us that being near a celebrity is meaningful because it creates a sense of connection to Hollywood history and culture,” he said.
At the cemetery’s prestigious Garden of Legends, burial property starts at around $200,000 and can exceed $6 million for custom mausoleums.
Noelle Berman, director of Private Estates at Hollywood Forever, told The Post that requests for celebrity-adjacent property happen “all the time.”
“We take a golf cart tour. We see Neil Sedaka, Johnny Ramone, or another star, and the client says, ‘I want a plot near them,’” Berman said.
The demand is so intense that buyers frequently reserve their spaces years before they will need them.
“Seventy percent of our sales are in advance,” Berman explained. “People prearrange at Hollywood Forever because they want a certain spot. Once it’s sold, it’s sold.”
The scramble sounds remarkably similar to acquiring New York real estate — except these leases never expire.
Inside Hollywood Forever’s Judy Garland Pavilion, niches start at about $8,800, depending on proximity to Dorothy herself.
For Geoffrey Dicker, the closer he was to Garland, the better.
The artist recently purchased a glass-front niche — a small compartment that holds an urn — just steps from Garland’s resting place.
“The niche cost more than $50,000. It’s like the size of a big shoe box,” Dicker, 49, told The Post.
“There is almost no iconic figure bigger than Judy Garland,” Dicker said. “When you think of Hollywood, you think of Judy Garland. When you think of movies, you think of Judy Garland.”
Dicker’s connection to Garland is deeply personal.
“Before I understood what it meant to be gay, I watched Garland play Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” said Dicker.
“‘The Wizard of Oz’ was always that fantasy land that you could escape to,” he said. “If you’re gonna go big, you can’t get any bigger than that.”
Berman told The Post that many older LGBTQ+ clients specifically seek spaces near Garland, as the phrase “friend of Dorothy” became a coded way for members of this community to identify one another during decades when being openly gay could be dangerous.
“Clients who lived before Stonewall and just can’t believe they are allowed to be openly gay and married to their partner are thrilled that they can be buried near Judy Garland,” she said.
However, Dicker is not waiting until death to occupy his niche. He has already filled it with miniature artwork beneath a display called “Geoffrey Dicker Is Alive.”
He knows critics may accuse him of self-promotion.
“I assumed because it’s a high-traffic area, there would be haters, so I have a Judy tie-in so that people don’t think that I’m just some self-promoting jerk,” Dicker said.
He created a miniature tribute featuring Dorothy and the Wicked Witch standing together beside the word “Love.”
“My point is that future generations can see that good and evil still can stand side by side and appreciate love,” said Dicker.
The New York version of cemetery stalking looks a bit different. More jazz. More history. More legacy.
At Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, burial buyers have specifically sought plots near the graves of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Celia Cruz and other cultural icons.
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn — final home to Leonard Bernstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Louis Comfort Tiffany — has also become both a tourist destination and a coveted burial ground.
Woodlawn understood the power of famous residents at its founding and believed a celebrity burial would attract buyers.
Their first was Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, the Civil War naval commander associated with “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” After he was buried there in 1870, visitors came to picnic and see his grave, which resulted in a major boost in sales, Meg Ventrudo, executive director of the Woodlawn Conservancy, told The Post.
More than a century later, the attraction remains.
Duke Ellington purchased his own Woodlawn plot in 1959, years before his death. When Miles Davis was buried nearby in 1991, a trend emerged.
Jazz legends increasingly wanted to be close to jazz royalty. Today, the area includes Lionel Hampton, Max Roach, Illinois Jacquet and other musical giants.
For Marian Pardo, 79, and her husband, Michael Toonkel, 85, the appeal was impossible to resist.
The longtime Manhattan professionals purchased plots for an unspecified amount at Woodlawn in 2025, specifically because of its proximity to Jazz Corner.
Lisa Ackerman, a senior advisor at Woodlawn, told The Post that a plot near Jazz Corner “would likely be around the $76,995.”
“My husband and I don’t always agree about a lot of stuff,” Pardo told The Post. “But we always agreed about how much we liked jazz.”
The couple spent years attending performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center and saw something joyful in the idea of eventually resting among the giants of American music. “I like a resting place where people will come,” Pardo said. “It was the allure of the jazz section.”
“There’s an old joke about visiting cemeteries and the woman who was cremated and wanted her ashes spread at Bloomingdale’s because that way she knew her daughter would come and see her once a week,” Pardo said with a laugh. “You know, I want to be someplace where people want to be!”
Bill Villanova, president of Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, told The Post that fascination with celebrity burial locations is hardly surprising.
“When the public reads the list of individuals who have had services at Frank E. Campbell, there is often immediate interest about where they are interred,” Villanova said.
Gene Newman, education director at personal data company Everplans, told The Post that the phenomenon is far older than Hollywood. For centuries, people paid premiums to be buried near saints, royalty, military heroes and religious relics.
Today’s celebrity graves are simply the modern version.
“Burial choices express how people want to be remembered,” Newman said. “In some countries, a well-attended funeral signifies a great life. This is why people hire strippers in China to increase attendance.”
“Some feel being near a famous figure can raise their status. For others, it offers a personal connection to someone they admired and never had the opportunity to meet. In a sense, it’s a form of immortality without becoming a vampire,” Newman said.
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