𝐉𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡.

Diana Ross was set to lead a Supremes reunion tour in 2000, with a talent fee reported at $15 million to $20 million. Mary Wilson, who co-founded the group with her in 1959, was offered $2 million, then $3 million, and said no. Ross went ahead without her, and the tour was pulled after 12 shows. In the video below, Wilson is asked if that was enough. "I think fair would be more of a better word." Ross tells Barbara Walters: "I think if we had offered her the moon, she would not have been happy." The offers were pegged to what each woman earned that year. Ross says Wilson was making $1 million a year, so the tour offered her double for 30 shows. "I'm the Supremes; she left the Supremes," Wilson said, turning down "a measly $3 million." Wilson later said she took a last-minute deal, and Ross blocked it. The case for Ross: she says she stayed out of the talks, then doubled the offer. Wilson would not have paid for a hotel, a gown or a set, and all 12 of the group's No. 1 singles had Ross on lead. If you build something with partners, agree now how a reunion gets split, or the bigger name will set the price. Wilson died in 2021. She and Ross never sang together again. So was Ross offering the going rate for her old backing singer, or pricing out the friend she started the group with? I post one famous deal like this every day, with who got paid, who got played, and the numbers that never made the poster.