I had heard through the cemetery-grapevine that Hollywood Forever was quickly becoming less friendly, stopping tourists from taking photos and putting an end to the atmosphere that had made it the best boneyard in town. Its amazing rehabilitation was well-documented in the HBO documentary "The Young and The Dead," focusing on the Cassity family of St. Louis, who brought the former cemetery back to life.

Brent and Tyler Cassity are young, handsome in that Midwestern way, and charming. If this sounds a bit like "Six Feet Under," you're not too far off the mark - one of the Cassitys consulted on the series. Running an empire called "The Forever Network," the Cassitys came to Hollywood with stardom in their chosen field securely under their belt and soon garnered the press coverage to back it up.

Renaming the tragically neglected Hollywood Memorial Park "Hollywood Forever" and crowning it with an infiniti logo brand symbol, the burial place on a grimy corner of Santa Monica Boulevard became the site of weekend film screenings where hustlers formerly worked the grounds. Newly-demised hipster graves popped up alongside the old guard, joined by the first wave of departed Hollywood Russians, who began choosing HF as their final resting place rather than Forest Lawn or Westwood.

As a tourist attraction, the immaculate lawns and gleaming marble mausoleums welcomed fans, film freaks, and mourners alike -even selling maps at the kiosk - and Dana Gould's recent fundraising effort to make it Vampira's final resting place seemed only fitting. However, at the memorial service, a friend was stopped by security as he was taking a photo. A tipster on "Roadside America" a few months back said that they were forbidden from taking photographs in the cemetery. What gives?

Unlike Forest Lawn, who are notoriously private - any cemetery lover will tell you that the surest way to get yourself removed from cemetery grounds is to ask where a famous person is buried - or Westwood, which, despite having Marilyn Monroe, has managed to keep its atmosphere small, quiet, and unobtrusive - Hollywood Forever's whole image was based on the celebration of Hollywood itself, living and dead. Last night, I got this email from a friend - and yes, he is a property owner, prepaid:

"I was at Hollywood Forever on Monday and they made me sign in at the gate and asked me why I was there. I told them I was a property owner, they still made me sign in. I asked them if they made the people that pay 10 bucks to see a movie on Saturday night sign in. No, was the response. The place is under investigation."

He sent me this astonishing article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch dated May 11th - oddly, this news has yet to break here:

Last month, regulators took control of three companies that make up the heart of the Cassitys' holdings. Government agencies in at least 10 states are trying to sort out what happened. Their attention is focused on one unsexy, but lucrative part of the sprawling firm — prepaid funerals. This was Forever's financial engine, spinning off cash and powering the promises of change.

Regulators are trying to determine if enough money remains to honor the prepaid funerals of perhaps 100,000 people, including 46,000 in Missouri. The funeral industry has not seen an emerging scandal like this in years.

I called Hollywood Forever to try and speak with the Cassitys.

"He isn't usually at this location ... he's usually ... let me see ... (silence) ... I believe the best would be to try in Missouri."

So are the Cassity Brothers no longer at the Hollywood location?

"They ... are but I don't believe he is here this week."

The extensive expose from the St. Louis Dispatch is bad news not only for those who have chosen to pre-plan:

NPS [National Prearranged Services] differed from other companies in significant ways: The Cassitys owned not just NPS, which marketed the product; they owned the life insurers that wrote the policies. In Missouri, NPS was the policy beneficiary, too, which is unusual. When clients bought prepaid burials, they paid NPS, which took out the insurance, paid the policy premiums and collected when they died. Regulators are still trying to determine how the arrangement worked.

A source in St. Louis tells me that Texas regulators took control of NPS and the two life insurance companies -- essentially taking the bankruptcy route for insurance companies. More details as we get them.

Hollywood Forever photo from Javivazquez via Flickr.