In the last years, the documentary was the world the A place for the cultural reappraisal of famous women being torn apart by the invisible hands of misogyny. A series of documentaries and surrounding investigations Britney Spearsalong with the fan started The #FreeBritney movement, led to the end of the pop star’s harsh tutelage. Document in Janet Jackson She reassessed her unreasonable criticism in the wake of the Super Bowl wardrobe incident, while a two-part documentary series at Sundance this year examined the sexualization and commodification of children. Shatter shields.
Netflix She now sheds light on the mistreatment of the ’90s icon Pamela Anderson in Pamela, a love storya new documentary that debuts January 31 — the same day as her memoir, Love, Pamela hits the shelves. Directed by Ryan White (guards), it’s a patch that allows Anderson to walk through her life with viewers. In her words, Anderson recalls her early years growing up in rural Canada, which include many dark episodes — she was molested by her childhood babysitter, raped by her boyfriend’s older brother, who was 25, when she was 12 — and being discovered on a jumbotron at a match. BC Lions Canadian Football League. Her story sums it up play boy Boarding Baywatch Stardom, animal rights activism, and the redeeming role of Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago! Its day-to-day approach, with Anderson occasionally recounting her childhood and adult diary notes, and the feel of Birds on the Wall imbue it with an intimacy often missing from endeavors like these.
Among the biggest focuses of the documentary, of course, concerns the leaked VHS tape of Anderson and her then-husband, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, and engaging in a series of sexual acts on a yacht, and elsewhere. He was the first celebrity sex tape To go viral on the Internet, turning Anderson into a media outlet. The scenes of Matt Lauer, Howard Stern, and Jay Leno squeezing and shoving her on tape will make you feel sick. Anderson maintains that the tapes were “stolen” from their home, and that the leak not only ruined her career, but her credibility in the public eye.
“After that, I felt that also strengthened the image of the cartoon. You become a caricature,” she shares in the film. “I think it was the deterioration of whatever image I had… I knew at that point my career was over.”
Now 55, Anderson says, she and Lee had just had a baby and had been building their new home for six months when someone — she still doesn’t know exactly who — stole Lee’s gun, though it was “the size of a refrigerator” and located behind a carpeted wall. . The safe was filled with Lee’s weapons and personal memorabilia, as well as a series of tapes posing as “goofy balls” and doodling on camera during their honeymoon period. The tapes were then spliced together, giving the impression of being a “sex tape” against a series of personal moments.
“One day, we got something in the mail. It was wrapped in brown paper. Tommy opened it. It was a VHS tape,” Anderson recalls. “Tommy told me to go upstairs, and watch it. I haven’t seen it – I’ve never seen it. Later, he went upstairs and said, ‘This is going to be annoying. This is a VHS video of us having sex.”
Penthouse Its founder, Bob Guccione, offered to buy the rights to the tape for $5 million in cash, but Anderson and Lee said, “Damn you, we gave the tapes back.” Unfortunately, it was the ’90s, and the internet was just getting started. Not only did the tape spread like wildfire, but it was also mass-produced by Seth Warshavsky of the Internet Entertainment Group (IEG), who distributed the video without the couple’s consent.
“This was stolen from our house,” Anderson says. “There’s no way people can steal something from your house and sell it to the whole world.”
She and Lee ended up suing Warshavsky and IEG for selling the tape, in what was at the time a significant right-to-privacy case. During the trial, Anderson was pregnant and worried that the stress would affect her baby’s health, since she had already had a miscarriage. That didn’t stop the opposing team’s lawyer from tearing it up in court, in a particularly misogynistic way.
“The lawyers basically said, ‘You’re in.'” play boy. “You have no right to privacy,” Anderson recalls. They were asking about my sexuality. And I kept thinking, “How am I being questioned about my sexuality, my preferences, my body parts, and where do I like to make love when it’s stolen property?” It made me feel like a terrible woman. I was just a piece of meat. This shouldn’t mean anything to me because I’m basically a bitch.”
Pamela Anderson and her dog in Pamela’s Love Story.
Netflix
She continues, “It felt like rape. I don’t bring up anything really heavy from my childhood, but when this guy attacked me, I thought everyone would know. When the tape was stolen, I felt it. And the narratives were so brutal. I remember looking at them thinking, ‘Why do they hate me so much?'” Why do those adult men Hate me so much?! “
In the end, in order to protect the health of their future child and to relieve Anderson from her infernal treatment, the couple agreed to end the case — though Anderson claims, “We never made a dime of money.” [the tape]. And I hate when people say we’ve settled on something. We haven’t settled on anything. We’ve told everyone to get lost… You can’t put a monetary number on the pain and suffering that’s been caused.”
While discussing the sex tape saga, and its subsequent treatment by the media, Anderson became visibly shaken. She tells the producers she is not feeling well and goes for a walk around her property to clear her mind.
Unfortunately, it was all swept back with arrival Pam and Tommya Hulu Produced by Seth Rogen, the miniseries stars Lily James as Anderson and Sebastian Stan as Lee, chronicling not only their love affair but the sex tape theft and mass production. We see her in the documentary grappling with the series’ real-time release.
“It really gives me nightmares. I didn’t sleep last night at all. I don’t want to watch it.” “I’m not going to watch it. I’ve never seen the tape; I’m not going to watch this one. Who knows how they’re going to film it? No one knows what we were going through at the time. They should have had my permission.”
She continues, “It’s like the tape was stolen. Basically, you’re just something that belongs to the world—like, you belong to the world. I just feel like it’s just…just ignore them. Let it go.”