This is one of the most famous scandals: the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sextape. A look back at this case that inspired the Pam & Tommy series, available on Disney+.
New series available on Disney+, Pam & Tommy looks back on the scandal that stained the love story between Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. This case, which profoundly changed their lives, marked a turning point in pop culture with the very first video that sadly went viral on the Internet.
This video is the film of the Baywatch star and Mötley Crüe drummer’s honeymoon after their quick wedding in Mexico in 1995, just days after they met in 1995. Containing their intimate antics, the video is leaked on the networks and it is the beginning of the descent into hell for Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.
The scandal tape
The terrible couple was already making headlines in the tabloids, because of their respective careers but also because of their rock’n’roll relationship. So when the rumors around a sextape swell, the media get carried away and harass the two lovebirds, who will suffer great media pressure that will get the better of their couple.
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How could this private video have landed on the Internet, which was then in its infancy? It is Rand Gauthier, a former porn actor turned electrician, who is behind this crime. The man was among the workers hired in the summer of 1995 by Tommy Lee to renovate the house he shared with Pamela.
Fired like a mess by the rockstar, Rand Gauthier takes revenge by stealing the couple’s personal effects, including the tape of their honeymoon. The electrician makes copies of it on tape and makes a business out of it via the Internet. Sold under the cloak, the video quickly ends up being available on the web.
Millions of Americans then interfere in the privacy of one of the biggest stars of the moment. Some time later, the whole world is aware of this case and has access on the Internet to this supposedly private video that ruined Pamela Anderson’s career. Cornered, the couple tries to sue those responsible but ends up giving up the rights to the video to a pornographic website.
Not recommended for those under 18, the series on Pamela Anderson and Tomy Lee is as sulphurous as it is moving
The first viral video
RollingStone devoted a long dossier to the affair, entitled Pam and Tommy: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Infamous Sex Tapein 2014. This very detailed article, which is one of the main sources of the Pam & Tommy series, looks back behind the scenes of this sex tape which shook and profoundly changed the world of celebrities and the way in which the voyeurism of the population has intensified.
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Long before social media, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sextape generated such buzz that the Guinness Book of World Records recorded this tape at the top of the chart for most downloads. Sadly, the star suffered a new trauma in 1998 when a second sextape was released again without her knowledge.
Since then, other stars have been victims of leaked intimate videos, such as Carolyn Murphy in 1999, Paris Hilton in 2004 and Kim Kardashian in 2007. Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez almost suffered the same fate when she separated from her former husband Ojani Noa at the end of the 1990s. The latter threatened to publish a secret sextape but the star succeeded in winning the case.
All of these latest cases have been the delight of the tabloids, paparazzi and other tabloids that revel in the misfortune of celebrities and sneak in. Paradoxically, the resurgence of social networks has changed this voyeurism of the media and the population, but celebrities can now better control what they want to show or not show of their lives and speak directly to their community thanks to these networks. A possibility that Pamela Anderson unfortunately did not have at the time.