Tom Selleck was angry CBS didn't want to give the "Magnum P.I." crew a bonus, so, he said, he negotiated a better salary to give them $1,000 himself.
Noam Galai/Getty Images/CBS/Getty Images
Tom Selleck said he renegotiated his pay to personally give the "Magnum P.I." crew a bonus after CBS refused to pay them extra.
In his new memoir, "You Never Know," Selleck recalled grappling with whether to reprise his role for an eighth season and said: "I didn't want anyone to think that last season was just a ploy to get more money."
During contract negotiations, the star initially asked that the crew get $1,000 bonuses if "Magnum P.I." was finished under budget and on time.
"But they responded that they could not under any circumstances talk about crew bonuses, that it would set a dangerous precedent, Selleck wrote.
"They always invoked precedent when you had an original thought beyond their contractual boilerplate. Honestly, that pissed me off."
CBS didn't reply when Business Insider asked it to comment.
Instead of starting a debate with the studio, Selleck said he figured out his own way to make the bonus happen, working with his agent Bettye McCart and his lawyer Skip Brittenham.
He wrote that he pushed for a "substantial" bonus notionally for himself. He said CBS agreed.
Selleck said that he then waited until the season was done and the studios involved — Universal Television as well as CBS — couldn't back out.
He wrote: "I called Skip and Bettye and told them to tell Universal — not ask them tell them — to issue thousand-dollar checks to every regular member of our 'Magnum' company in both Hawaii and LA. And that since it was coming out of my bonus money, there was no precedent involved."
(Universal Television also didn't respond to a request for comment.)
The story cuts to the heart of the debate over pay in Hollywood — and seems to demonstrate the huge difference in leverage that Selleck had as a star versus the everyday workers on his show.
These kinds of issues came to a head in 2023 when writers and actors — including huge names — went on strike and secured a high minimum wage and better healthcare rates across the industry.
Even after they find riches, many top actors identify strongly with those struggling at the bottom of the industry and talk about the hardship of the start of their careers.
This month, Chris Pine said that he was overdrawn by $400 when he landed "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement." And in March 2023, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck admitted that they shared a bank account in high school when they were trying to get their careers off the ground.
Selleck said that the crew appreciated his efforts, and let him know.
"When the checks came out, I got a picture from our L.A. crew standing on a bleacher with big smiles on their faces," the star added. "In front of them was a very big oversized check for a thousand dollars. The caption below read, 'Thanks, Tom. What a 'grand' gesture.' That made me happy."
