Happy Friday POU! Dirty Diana for real!
Tony Turner reveals the following in his book, “Deliver Us From Temptation:”
While the Temptations and Supremes rehearsed for a joint appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” David Ruffin became angry, because the set featured several boxes with the names “The Temptations” and “The Supremes,” all across them but if those names came up thirty times, the name “Diana Ross” came up sixty times. Worst of all, her name was overlapping not just the Supremes name but the Temptations too. So visually, you had something like, “Diana Ross Temptations-Diana Ross Supremes and there was nothing the Tempts could do about it.
The real problem started when the two groups started rehearsing and realized the Tempts songs and the Supremes songs were arranged in different keys and Diana could not sing in David’s key. As usual, after the rehearsal Diana started complaining about the whole thing and when the Tempts left and came back to rehearsal the next day they all knew she must have run and called Berry Gordy because everything had been changed. Overnight, somebody had transposed the Tempts charts into Diana’s key and rehearsed the band to play the new charts. The guys were shocked. They hadn’t worked with Diana in a while and they weren’t used to seeing her treated almost like a solo star with her own separate staff and everything. Little did they know, Diana had the nerve to be upset because she had the audacity to think that the Tempts were riding her coattails.
David whispered to Mary Wilson, “Is this what goes on all the time?” “Yes, said Mary, “she always gets her way.”
Later, before the actual show, David told me. “Watch, Tony. When I get up there tonight, I’m gonna give that phony wig-wearing bitch a run for her money.” I didn’t know what he was planning but I knew David could murder Diana vocally and he did. He did exactly what he was supposed to do as far as his dance steps and movements were concerned but when it came time to singing, he did a whole lot of ad libbing and completely threw Diana off. Diana was livid by the end of the show.
Raynoma Gordy (Berry’s ex-wife) reveals the following allegations in her book, “Berry, Me, and Motown.”
After Diana Ross decided to marry Bob Silberstein, she asked me to call Berry Gordy with the news. I contacted Berry and said, “Congratulations, Berry, I said. “What are you talking about?” He asked, completely in the dark.
“Diana and Bob just got married in Las Vegas.” Berry took the blow like a real soldier. “Great, that’s absolutely great!” He sounded like he was throwing streamers around his office.
For a long time, the public sentiment was “poor Berry Gordy-getting the shaft by the cold-hearted Diana.” Berry told me later that Diana’s wedding day was the happiest day of his life. He said that at an earlier point she’d almost forced his hand until at the last moment he’d realized, “I can’t marry this woman. This woman is selfish as I am. I’m going to have to be kissing her ass all the time. I need somebody to kiss my ass.”
A perfect Hollywood mismatch, their marriage was all to accommodate Diana’s needs while Bob kept busy managing Chaka Khan & Rufus. To complicate an already loaded situation, Berry became a sort of third party to the marriage, accompanying the two of them everywhere. Another weird triangle.
Soon after Diana married Bob, a new light was shed on the ultimatum she’d given Berry-she was pregnant. When Rhonda was born, she looked enough like Berry for those of us who knew the situation to figure it out but whether or not Diana told Berry at that time is unknown. An extremely devoted mother, Diana shielded Rhonda from the knowledge until she was seventeen years old. In the meantime, Rhonda had grown up the daughter of a white man.
Later in 1973, two years after Rhonda was born, Berry held a wedding reception at the Beverly Hills Hotel for his daughter Hazel and Jermaine Jackson. Toward the end of the beautiful affair, according to Raynoma, Berry stood up to say a few words. Telling some humorous and poignant stories about Hazel, his eyes fell at last on Diana, Bob and their baby girl. “And thank God I only had one daughter,” Berry finished. Diana immediately drew herself up, signaled to her husband they were going, and made a hasty, conspicuous departure.