It didn’t take long after meeting infamous Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson for Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to broach the subject of pornography.
“She doesn’t believe that Playboy is pornographic — she considers it art. I respectfully disagree,” says Boteach, a celebrity holy man and author of 30 books, including the best-selling “Kosher Sex.”
The unlikely duo first got together in a Malibu, Calif., coffeehouse in 2016, after being introduced by a mutual friend, the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is a neighbor of Anderson’s in Malibu.
“Shmuley was curious to know how my public and private image were polar opposites — he wanted to recognize the good things in me — and the conversation began there,” Anderson tells The Post over email.
The two ended up connecting and discovering they shared strong opinions on what pornography has done to culture. In the summer of 2016, with Anthony Weiner in the headlines, they co-authored a withering op-ed for the Wall Street Journal about the perils of porn, declaring it a “public hazard.” They went on to give a joint lecture at Oxford University, with more than 1,000 people lining up to see the odd couple. Penning a book together seemed like the next logical step.
In “Lust for Love,” out next week, Anderson, 50, and Boteach, 51, write of how meaningful, passionate sex is on the decline, and call for a new “sensual revolution” that emphasizes connecting with partners in the bedroom.
“Relationships cannot be functional,” Boteach tells The Post. “The friendship marriage — best friends, finishing each other’s sentences, paying the mortgage together — is all nice, but it’s not enough. You have to be lovers. Relationships aren’t supposed to be confining. The spirits are supposed to soar — sending electric currents through you. Pamela and I agree it doesn’t happen today and we want to reclaim that.”
But, while the two have similar ideas about marriage, they have had drastically different romantic lives. The rabbi has been married to his wife, Debbie, for 30 years. They have nine children together, ages 9 to 29.
Anderson married rocker Tommy Lee in 1995 after knowing him for four days. A sex tape debacle; two children, Brandon, now 21, and Dylan, now 20; and a felony charge of spousal abuse for Lee followed before the couple divorced after a few tumultuous years together. In 2006, she married on-again-off-again flame Kid Rock, but the union lasted less than a year. Then, in October 2007, she wed Rick Salomon (the poker player best known for his sex tape with Paris Hilton), but Anderson requested an annulment a few months later. Most recently, she’s been linked to 32-year-old French soccer star Adil Rami and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, though she maintains that she and Assange are just friends.
Despite her decades of romantic drama, Anderson insists she is a sweet romantic at heart.
“I believe in love — I want it all,” she says. “I cannot have detached sex — it’s boring.”
Boteach says that’s really the case.
“She revels in her parents’ marriage. Marriage is the model for her, and she’s very proud of her parents for having one romantic partner and making it work. The fact that she was committed to traditional notions — marriage, fidelity and how she romanticized love — was particularly inspiring,” he says. “I was amazed how much we agreed on and amazed how traditional she really is, but we’re all human and we all have common wants.”
They even connected over spirituality, though Anderson isn’t Jewish.
“I love art and that includes the art of religion, faith, mythology and poetry,” she says. “There are many similarities in the way our minds work and how faith plays a vital role in both of our lives.”
The rabbi was heartened by her curiosity.
“She was extremely interested in the wisdom of the Jewish concepts and their proven ability to strengthen marriages and families for the better.”
They both think the sexual revolution was ultimately unsuccessful.
“[It] gave us a lot of great freedoms and a new way to experience relationships, but it gave us really bad sex in my opinion,” says Anderson. “I have a lot of friends from this time that said free love just made them lonely.”
One thing they didn’t connect over: “Baywatch.”
Boteach, who’s collaborated with a tabloid’s worth of celebs including Michael Jackson, says he’s never watched.
“It came on TV during my yeshiva years — the last thing we had was a TV,” he says.
The rabbi did almost visit the Playboy mansion once, in 1998 after his “Kosher Sex” was excerpted in the magazine.
He was sent two tickets in the mail for a big bash there, but his wife didn’t entertain any ideas about going to the party.
Boteach says: “She wagged her fingers and said, ‘No bunnies for you.’”
source: New York Post
Read more: http://pamanderson.proboards.com/thread/9071/tips-orthodox-rabbi#ixzz5DDj7uORf
