In news that can only be described as “girl, what you mean!?” news, Emmy-winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph revealed that she and fellow icon Diana Ross had beef way back in the day.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey as a part of her Oprah Daily’s “The Life You Want’ Class: A Conversation with Sheryl Lee Ralph, Ralph explained that the years-long feud was one-sided, in that Ross took issue with the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls”— in which Ralph starred in the lead role — based off of her assumption that the play was based on Ross’ time with The Supremes. Ross felt the same about the 2006 movie musical adaptation of “Dreamgirls,” but Ralph insisted that was not the case.
“There was one thing that I was told in the development of ‘Dreamgirls:’ I could love Diana Ross as much as I want, but if I played Diana Ross we would get sued,” she told Winfrey, later adding: “It wasn’t [Ross’ story]. But the more you told that it wasn’t, the more everybody believed that it was.”
The “Abbott Elementary” star went on to explain how she and the “Baby Love” singer had a run-in at the Russian Tea Room in New York City back in the day and that she was excited to see her because she wanted to talk through her feelings about the musical. However, Ross wasn’t as receptive to Ralph and only spoke briefly to her before leaving.
“At that moment, she walked into the Russian Tea Room and I was like, ‘There she was,’” Ralph said. “I just got up and walked over to her. And she turned around in the way that you could smell her perfume. It was beautiful. And the smile left her face looking at me. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. She doesn’t like me because of the show.’ She said, ‘I know who you are.’ And I was just like, okay. And she turned around and she was gone.”
Thankfully, their feud was later squashed with the help of one of Ross’ sons, who urged his mother to have a conversation with the “Moesha” star and hash out her feelings during an event where they were both present.
“She didn’t want to see me but then she saw me and she came over and we talked and it was wonderful,” Ralph explained. “It was lipstick and lashes under the bridge. It was gone. She said, ‘Girl, that was such a long time ago. I understand now.’ I was like, ‘Aw, here’s the moment.’ It was great.”
Well, thank God! The world needs a lot of things right now but two divas beefing with each other is not one of them.