Some of Hollywood's best known stars came out to attend an extravagant yet poignant ceremony last night, to bid farewell to much loved comedy actor, Danny DeVito (62).

DeVito, who in 2004 was diagnosed with an entirely unique medical condition subsequently dubbed "DeVito Syndrome", has been gradually shrinking for the past three years, and is expected to reach the subatomic level before the end of the month.

Once smaller than an atom, DeVito's size is expected to continue decreasing, until the Batman Returns star finally shrinks out of existence, which experts predict will be some time in mid-June.  Plucky Devito has jokingly dubbed March 29th "Invisible Day", as this is the day by which it is anticipated the actor will be smaller than any current scientific instruments can see.

Many of the hundreds of household names who attended the ceremony wept as DeVito - now barely the size of a grain of salt - appeared on stage before them one last time, thanks to some high-tech video technology.  Using state of the art miniature cameras, technicians were able to broadcast an enlarged image of the Hoffa director, successfully conveying the impression that he had returned to his relatively towering height of five feet.

Powerful microphones were hooked up to the climate controlled box which Danny must inhabit 24 hours a day in order to remain protected from insects and other predators.  Some of Hollywood's most talented sound engineers continuously monitored and adjusted the sound levels from the microphones, so that those in the audience could hear DeVito's farewell to them all, as well as the upbeat rendition of The Sound of Music's "So Long, Farewell" which he performed with wife, Rhea Pearlman.

"Do not grieve for me, for I am not dead," DeVito told the hushed theatre, "I am merely smaller than the human eye can comprehend.  My one and only regret is that I cannot hold Rhea's hand, just one more time."

Added the diminutive star:  "But if I did I'd almost certainly be killed instantly."

Pearlman - who shot to fame alongside Ted Danson in the hit US sitcom, Cheers - choked back tears during her husband's speech, before receiving a ten minute standing ovation when she crossed to his on-screen video image and kissed it tenderly on the lips.

"It's so unbelievably sad," an emotional Catherine Zeta Jones said after the ceremony.  "Both Danny and Rhea have been so brave throughout this.  I don't know what I'd do if it happened to Michael [Douglas]."

"It seems like only yesterday we were co-starring in Twins," said DeVito's Twins co-star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, "and now he's going to be the size of an electron in a matter of days.  It's like something out of a science-fiction movie.  Like Total Recall."

Added Arnold: "Or Terminator."

Despite the tragic circumstances, many scientists are excited about what DeVito might witness as he continues to shrink to nothingness.  Some experts even go so far as to speculate that rather than disappear, the Taxi star may actually become an unfeasibly large giant in another Universe which exists inside "The Higgs Boson" - a hypothetical scalar elementary particle believed to exist, but never observed.

Once in this miniscule universe, however, DeVito would almost certainly be crushed in the cold vacuum of space - an eventuality which the New Jersey born actor has said would be "disappointing".