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Elizabeth TaylorCourtesy of Everett Collection.

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Elizabeth Taylor was not just a Hollywood icon; she was also a smart businesswoman throughout all eras of her career. When she passed away in 2011, she was estimated to be worth around $600 million and $1 billion, thanks to her portfolio of jewelry, real estate, and perfume empire.

“She was somebody who understood the power of her celebrity and started leveraging it more than 20 years ago,” reminisced Bloomberg Businessweek Senior Editor Diane Brady explained to CBS News shortly after her death. That was a lesson Taylor often shared with other actresses in the industry, and it’s something that stuck with Whoopi Goldberg, who was mentored by the legendary star. “You and I know you can do anything, but you are Black, so it’s going to be harder for folks to believe,” Goldberg recalled to Variety about the advice Taylor gave her earlier in her career. “It’s going to be up and down. If you have a way to see where you were, it will allow you to not give up in tough times.”

Whoopi Goldberg at the Garden of Laughs Comedy Benefit held at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on March 27, 2024 in New York City. John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images.

When it came to Hollywood contracts, Goldberg took a page out of Taylor’s playbook — it’s an anecdote revealed in her new memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me. The View star learned to add a rider to her movie contracts, and it’s a total diva move that we love. Goldberg, per Taylor’s suggestion, asked for a gift from each film set that would serve as a memento from her time working on the production. That slick piece of advice has allowed the 68-year-old Oscar winner to amass a significant art collection. That one line item in a contract has helped her accumulate major wealth and have a sweet memory from each film.

Kate Andersen Brower, author of Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon, loves to be described as “the original influencer” because she paved the way for so many women to be entrepreneurs. Taylor was the first celebrity to dive into the beauty world with her White Diamonds perfume and it wasn’t just a vanity brand. Brower noted that the Cleopatra star was “involved in picking out the fragrances and was obsessive about getting it right.”

Taylor truly empowered women to dream that “you can have it all, that there are no limits to what your power can do in this position,” and Goldberg followed that advice — which paid off handsomely. Perhaps Goldberg’s story will reach another young star, who will find a way to build wealth in a very Elizabeth Taylor way.