Pamela Anderson was once one of the most recognisable women on the planet. Baywatch, the TV show she starred in during the s, was watched by more people than any other series in history: at its peak, an estimated 1.
She also appeared in movies, music videos and not a few issues of Playboy magazine. She became such an icon that Virgin Cola launched the Pammy, a bottle shaped to honour her curves. And then she became a laughing stock. The most valuable item he found inside it turned out to be a private recording the couple had made while on holiday.
Duly leaked, it became perhaps the most famous sex tape of all time β and, Time magazine points out, the first viral video of the early internet age.
Anderson clapped back. She wrote two novels. The following year she was the subject of Pamela: A Love Story, a bright documentary series, available on Netflix , that reveals a wisecracking, articulate woman who survived childhood sexual abuse, read Tennessee Williams while she was being photographed for Playboy, and journals furiously.
I write all the time. I have my open journal on Substack. I just needed somewhere to put my life when I felt like life was really like death for me. Writing was life saving. Anderson, who beams as she talks about the movie, is aware of her poignant overlap with its heroine. She makes mistakes, and she wears her heart on her sleeve. But her films are quietly dazzling. This one is a character study worthy of the postclassical Hollywood period that her famous grandfather helped to forge.
