Arbwyth said:

Obviously it's impossible to know since the majority of us don't know her, but did any of you read the Guardian's recent excerpt of Gil Scott-Heron's memoir? The excerpt is about him and Stevie Wonder working to get the MLK holiday passed, and at one point he talks about a boy who won an essay contest on the holiday and had trouble reading the essay to the crowd at a rally because it was mimeographed really poorly:

After I introduced him, I walked backstage again. He started to read again, and I heard him coming to the point where he had faltered, the part on the page that was damn near invisible. He started to falter again, and I listened for some wiseass to say something. But then it started to go smoothly, and I looked over and there was Diana Ross standing next to him with her arm around his shoulder. Without being in the way, without making it her essay, she helped him over those rough spots. My man's confidence got a lift and the crowd started to appreciate what he had written. I stood there thinking: there must be 30 or 40 adults up here on this stage, and she's the only one of us who thought to go up there and help the brother!

I think she probably treated people according to how they could handle being treated. It seems like she was probably extremely kind and gentle with kids, but could be more ruthless with people in the music industry because A) They could handle it and B) that's the only way you get ahead in that industry, anyhow. I do think Flo was screwed over, but that wasn't Diana's doing.

Now see? I love these type of stories. Diana Ross is definitely not the Beezlebub some people want to believe. I read that right after King died, she made this speech about advocating love amongst all people during the Supremes' performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The audience clapped afterwards but the reaction from critics was mixed. Queen Elizabeth allegedly cried while the Supremes performed "Somewhere". Diana sounds her finest when she does ballads so I can see her delivering the tearjerkers.