Pamela Anderson has no interest in watching Pam & Tommy.
The Hulu limited series (now streaming) tells the true story behind the release of her and then-husband Tommy Lee’s stolen sex tape, and a source close to Anderson tells EW that she won’t be tuning in now or ever. “I do know she’ll never, never watch this,” the source says. “Not even years from now. Not even the trailer.”
Both the showrunners and series star Lily James (who plays Anderson) have previously stated they reached out to Anderson during the series’ development but never received a response. The source confirms Anderson was indeed contacted multiple times, first “years ago” long before filming, and again “while they were in post-production.” But she still wasn’t interested—unlike Lee, who EW previously confirmed spoke to Stan about the project. “Tommy doesn’t get it,” says the source. “He’s in the same mindset he was at the time: that any publicity is good publicity.”
While Pam & Tommy is all about Anderson, producers were able to develop the series without her participation (or permission) by optioning the rights to an article published by Rolling Stone in 2014 that revealed the unbelievable true story of how a disgruntled contractor working on their house stole a large safe from their garage containing the private sex tape and then released it on the internet without their consent.
“As a friend of Pamela, at least no one will ever ask me again if the tape was really stolen,” the source says. “But imagine if a celebrity today had their nudes leaked and then Hollywood recreated not just the crime but the actual nudes — that would never happen. In the ’90s, Pamela’s body was deemed by a judge to be public property. There was no question the tape was stolen property, but the court decided it wasn’t private property because her body belonged to the world.”
The source adds that after the #MeToo movement, “Pamela is somehow still the exception to the rule. She’s still up for grabs. That’s messed up. Yes, it’s brief clips — but to me the most damning aspect is that [Pam & Tommy] didn’t just tell the story, they recreated moments from the boat.”
When it comes to James’ portrayal of Anderson, the source says that Anderson “never commented on Lily’s look and would never do so. This poor starlet has had to hear that Pamela thinks she’s trash — it just never happened. The headlines around that are just totally screwed up.”
The source believes Sebastian Stan, who plays Lee in the series, “did an impressive job” and James “did a great visual — and the voice is pretty uncanny,” but the series doesn’t always capture the true Anderson. “Pamela is not that meek,” the source notes of moments like when James’ Pamela is shown hesitant to voice her opinion on the set of Baywatch. “She is not a shrinking violet and never was.”
Anderson is now “focused on her life in Vancouver,” says the source. “She doesn’t read the headlines” and “she’s happy to be focused on her philanthropic efforts and wants any press she ever gets to be about that now.”
source: EW
