Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s stolen sex tape was one of the first viral internet scandals, seen by - and shocking - millions.
As a new film starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan is released next week, what really happened next to Pam, Tommy and the rest of the people featured in the biopic?
Here, we reveal all that you need to know about the behind the scenes story...
Pamela Anderson
The Baywatch bombshell, now 54, wed Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee after a whirlwind four-day, drug-fuelled romance in February 1995.
Their short-lived relationship was tumultuous with allegations of domestic violence and they split in 1998 after having two sons together, Brandon Thomas and Dylan Jagger.
“He was the love of my life. We had wild and crazy beginnings that was too much for both of us,” said Pamela.
In March 2002, Pamela publicly stated that she had contracted hepatitis C after sharing tattoo needles with her ex-husband, although as of 2015 she has since been cured of the condition.
They got back together in 2008 and Pamela said: “There was Tommy and then there was nobody else.” While Tommy, now 59, added: “We’ve only given it a try 800 times — 801, here we go”.
However, it was short-lived and they split for good in 2010.
Pamela married a further four times, to singer Kid Rock, poker player Rick Salomon (twice) and Hollywood producer Jon Peters.
Her most recent marriage, to her bodyguard Dan Hayhurst, who she wed less than a year after Peters, ended last week - although she has since said that her nuptials to Peters were not legal.
She has appeared in films including Superhero Movie and Blonde and Blonder, and the Canadian star was inducted into her country’s hall of fame in 2006. She has also written three memoirs and three novels as well as appearing in Australian and UK Big Brother and the 2013 series of Dancing on Ice but crashed out first after a few stumbles.
She’s a supporter of the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, AIDs charities and animal rights.
Pamela has said she won’t be watching Pam & Tommy, saying she had “no involvement” in the making of the series.
Tommy Lee
Hellraiser Tommy has had his fair share of legal troubles in the years since coming to a settlement over the sex tape.
In 1998, he served six months in county jail after he plead no contest to attacking Pamela while she was holding their son Dylan. He reportedly left his ex-wife with bruises and a torn fingernail.
Three years later, Tommy’s other son Brandon’s four-year-old friend Daniel Karven-Veres drowned in his swimming pool while attending a birthday party at the drummer’s house. Tommy was cleared by a jury in April 2003.
At the September 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, Tommy was kicked out of the ceremony after a fight with Pamela’s ex-husband Kid Rock.
Over the years the rock and roll star has had an on and off relationship with his band Motley Crüe, appearing in major concerts such as their 1999 Greatest Hits tour.
Tommy quit in 2007 after the rest of the group tried to sue his manager Carl Stubner for making Tommy take part in reality TV shows to earn more money, which led to the band’s tour dates being cancelled. One of these shows was Tommy Lee Goes to College, which featured him going to Nebraska University and attempting to fit in.
Tommy has also formed his own rap metal band called Methods of Mayhem, released solo music and formed a supergroup with members of Metallica and Guns N’ Roses called Rock Star Supernova. He now works as a touring dance music DJ and also wrote an autobiography called Tommyland.
Since splitting with Pamela, Tommy has been engaged to dancer Mayte Garcia - the ex-wife of singer Prince - and singer Sofia Toufa. On Valentine’s Day 2019, he wed current wife social media influencer Brittany Furlan after the pair met on Instagram.
He’s said of his life with his new wife: “We’ve got a full-on farm over here. Fish, turtles, dogs, birds, my kids. We hang out and work in my studio a lot. Keeps me busy and out of trouble.”
Unlike Pamela, Tommy is apparently looking forward to the Disney+ series. “Let everyone know we did it first,” he reportedly recently told a close pal. “Before the Kardashians, before anyone else... we broke the internet first’.”
Rand Gauthier
Played in Pam & Tommy by Seth Rogan, Rand was the disgruntled employee of Tommy who stole the couple’s 1995 honeymoon sex tape.
Rand was reportedly fired by Tommy for subpar work at the couple’s California mansion, and the rock star refused to pay him the £14,700 owed for the job.
When Rand went back to demand the money, Tommy pointed a gun at him, giving the electrician a taste for revenge.
Rand knew Pamela and Tommy had a safe in their garage holding valuables including jewels and Rolex watches, but didn’t know it also contained the sex tape until he opened it in October 1995. He then used his contacts in the porn industry to make copies, selling them online for £44 each.
Rand hoped selling the tape would make him rich. “I was looking at castles in Spain,” he said. But it wasn’t to be - the money went to the porn magnates, and Rand has since said that when he tells people he was responsible for getting the sex tape out there “almost no-one” believes him.
He still works as an electrician today, and grows cannabis in his garage in California. He wasn’t punished for stealing the tape, but was always aggrieved that it made his enemy Tommy more famous. Rand said: “I made his career is what happened.”
Uncle Miltie
Milton Ingley, aka ‘Uncle Miltie’ was the mulleted, pipe smoking adult film producer Rand contacted to get the tape out into the mainstream. Played by Nick Offerrman in Pam & Tommy, Rand described him as “the kind of wheeling and dealing”, adding “he knew how to make a nickel into two dollars. Always schmoozing.”
After making a few copies of the tape, the pair destroyed the original cassette to dispose of the evidence.
Uncle Miltie had started out in porn himself, starring in 140 videos before moving behind the camera. He was the person responsible for setting up the website pamlee.com, creating widespread availability of the footage.
In 1997, Miltie moved to Amsterdam to run the website from there, making him harder to sue by the Lee-Andersons, and though they were able to obtain a court injunction in October that year ordering him to stop selling the video, he ignored it.
Miltie remained in Europe for seven years, then returned to the US. He died at his Arizona home at 54 in 2006 after suffering from diabetes that reportedly left him blind.
It’s unknown as to exactly how much money Miltie made from distributing the Pamela and Tommy sex tape to the mass market, but Rand would later say: “I loved Milton, but he he ripped us all off”.
Seth Warshavsky
A Silicon-valley upstart, then 25-year-old Seth (Fred Hechinger) got his hands on a copy of the video and announced in a press release that he wanted to show the tape on his own porn site, Club Love. His former employees claimed he did this to get the publicity from an inevitable lawsuit brought by Pamela and Tommy - with the latter being reportedly furious.
Cort St. George, one of Seth’s associates who helped him distribute the video recalled Tommy being furious about this. “We were in the back of a car,” he said, “Tommy was on speakerphone, and Tommy was like, ‘Seth, I’m going to kick your f***ing **s.’”
However, the couple decided to settle out of court, under the false impression that by allowing Seth to show the tape over the internet it would mean he couldn’t sell it in stores.
But, within days anyone who bought a Club Love subscription had access to the sex tape - and there were “thousands of sales, every day, for months”. Seth then made a deal with a leading adult video company to manufacture video copies, and by February 1998 they were in sale in sex shops all over the US. Hundreds of thousands of copies were sold.
Pamela and Tommy sued Seth, but by 2002 when it finally reached court, Seth had moved to Bangkok and the FBI had begin to investigate his business practices. He was ordered to pay the pair £547,000 each - but they never saw the money. It’s believed Seth, now 49, still lives in Thailand.
Cort later said: “I feel like there’s a lot of bad karma around that video. I worry about myself sometimes. What did I really do?”.
