The Dark Side of Fame: Pamela Anderson’s Sex Tape Scandal Revisited

As I scroll through the news at 2 AM, shaking my head and muttering, “Of course this happened,” I’m reminded that the darker aspects of fame often leave a lasting impact on those involved. The infamous sex tape scandal involving Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee is a prime example, and its effects are still being felt today.

Nicole Eggert, a former co-star of Anderson’s on the hit TV show “Baywatch,” has spoken out about the “horrifying” aftermath of the scandal. Eggert, who starred alongside Anderson from 1992 to 1994, revealed that she’s “never seen” the infamous tape but still found the ordeal terrifying. “I wasn’t even on set when that was all happening, and when that went down,” Eggert exclusively told The Post while promoting A&E’s new eight-part “Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes” docuseries. “But I did live that era.”

The sex tape saga kicked off in 1995 when Anderson and Lee filmed themselves having sex on a houseboat on Lake Mead during their honeymoon. Months later, the home videos were stolen from the couple’s Malibu home by electrician Rand Gauthier and spliced together before being obtained by the now-defunct Internet Entertainment Group in 1997. The eight-minute sex tape was eventually uploaded online in November 1997, igniting a lengthy legal battle that wasn’t resolved until 2002, when Anderson and Lee were each awarded $740,000 in their lawsuits against IEG.

However, despite being awarded a default judgment, neither Anderson nor Lee saw any money. Gauthier, meanwhile, never faced jail time. After taking over headlines in the late 1990s, the scandal saw a resurgence in interest in 2022 when Hulu released an eight-episode limited series about the events titled “Pam & Tommy.” Starring Lily James as Anderson and Sebastian Stan as Lee, the show went on to be nominated for several Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy awards.

Anderson and Lee, who share sons Brandon, 29, and Dylan, 27, divorced in 1998 after a wild whirlwind romance. Although they rekindled their romance and remarried in 2008, they split up for good in 2010. The former Playboy model, who has been linked to her “Naked Gun” co-star Liam Neeson as of late, opened up about the sex tape scandal most recently in the 2023 Netflix documentary, “Pamela: A Love Story.”

“I blocked that stolen tape out of my life in order to survive, and now that it’s all coming up again, I feel sick,” Anderson said in the doc. “I wanna take control of the narrative for the first time.” After revealing that she made “not one dollar” from the leaked video, Anderson admitted that she never even watched the infamous sex tape. “We were naked all the time and filming each other and being silly,” she told CBS News in 2023. “But those tapes were not meant for anybody else to see.”

Eggert, meanwhile, revealed that she never discussed the sex tape scandal with her former co-star. Although the two still talk from time to time, the topic never came up. “Pamela and I have had communications on and off,” she told The Post. “I don’t really know that she’s a girl’s girl. I don’t really talk to her that much.” “Every time I see her, it’s lovely, and she’s kind,” Eggert added. “But no, we didn’t talk about [the sex tape] at all.”

The leaked video also had a profound impact on Eggert, who revealed that she was approached to participate in explicit recordings of her own. “I was approached to do one, and it got to a point where it was like a [business] deal,” Eggert recalled. “It was like, ‘Do you want to do one?’ And there was paper on the table.” “I was absolutely not interested,” the actress, who declined the offer, added.

The first two episodes of “Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes” premiered on A&E on Monday, Sept. 8. Set to “expose the dark side of our culture to unpack the public’s response to scandal, consent, sexism, sexuality, racism, and homophobia,” new episodes of the docuseries release Monday nights at 9 p.m.

As I close this article, I’m left wondering what other dark secrets will be exposed in the world of celebrity scandals. Will we ever learn to prioritize consent and respect in the pursuit of fame?

Sources: Celebrity Storm and The New York Post, Rolling Stone, CBS News
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed