“I’m not a victim. I put myself in crazy situations and survived them.” – Pamela Anderson in “Pamela, A Love Story.”
Pamela Anderson has been exposed to the spotlight for some 30 years, whether it’s via her own efforts, the unrelenting glare of the paparazzi or a stolen sex tape that fractured the nascent Internet, and she’s always been forthcoming in hundreds of interviews through the decades — and yet there’s still a considerable public appetite for all things Pam. This is evidenced by the success of the Hulu series “Pam & Tommy” and the onslaught of advance hype and interest in Anderson’s second memoir, “Love Pamela,” and the Netflix documentary “Pamela, A Love Story,” both coming out Tuesday.
“Pamela, A Love Story” revisits the familiar talking points of Anderson’s bio, from her Schwab’s-like discovery at a Canadian Football game through her multiple appearances in Playboy through her attaining worldwide fame in “Baywatch” through her marriage to Tommy Lee to the release of the sex tape through the tumultuous breakup with Lee through the failed movie career and the endless media scrutiny of her private life. It would seem to be a tall task for director Ryan White (“Good Night Oppy”) to find a fresh way to tell the tale — but thanks in large part to the 55-year-old Anderson’s funny, warm, smart and engaging presence as she literally opens the doors to her home and the pages of her diaries, “Pamela, A Love Story” is a fascinating albeit obviously sympathetic take on Anderson’s life and times.
The documentary opens with Anderson having moved back home to her hometown of Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada, population 8,990, where she putters around the house in a robe (“Nobody wants to see my body anymore,” she tells her mother) and no makeup, steers a John Deere riding mower and buys over-the-counter hair products at the local store. (The picture they’re painting for us feels like a somewhat contrived, real-life launching pad for a fictionalized streaming series a la “Schitt’s Creek.”)
At home, she rifles through crates of VHS tapes and DVDs and notebooks filled with her handwritten notations from back in the day. As we see glimpses of home video of Anderson with Tommy Lee in happier times, she says, “That was it, that was my time to really be in love.”
Anderson speaks with typical candor about her childhood, including her memories of her father Barry and her mother Carol constantly fighting and then getting back together. (Her father was an abusive alcoholic; Anderson later notes, “From the beginning, I’ve been drawn to different kinds of bad guys,” and it doesn’t take a therapist to see the connection.) Her babysitter molested her for three-plus years, and when she was 12, she was raped by a man in his 20s. Little wonder, then, that when Playboy came calling after seeing Anderson appear in ads and posters for Labatt beer, she was all too eager to get out of her hometown and make her way to Hollywood.
As we’re reminded in a series of clips, interviewers from Matt Lauer to Larry King to Jay Leno would brazenly and relentlessly question Anderson about her breasts, and Anderson would always smile and crack a joke and go along with it. (In present day, Anderson says, “I don’t see how it’s so interesting.”) With “Baywatch” becoming the most popular show in the world and Playboy releasing a steady stream of magazines and DVD’s, Anderson’s star continued to rise — and the tabloid attention reached frenzied levels when she married bad-boy rocker Tommy Lee after knowing him for all of four days. Anderson still has anger in her voice when she talks about the theft of the sex tape and the belief some hold to this day that she and Lee orchestrated the leak and profited from the sales. (They didn’t, and they didn’t.)
In present day, her adult sons Brandon and Dylan come across as loving and supportive as they join their mother for some of the interview sessions for the doc and watch old home videos (“That’s when we were living in Wayne Gretzky’s house”) with their mother, who recalls her brief marriages to the likes of Kid Rock and to Rick Salomon (twice), a high-stakes poker player and fringe Hollywood character. “We found a crack pipe in the Christmas tree,” Anderson says as she recalls the rapid demise of her first marriage to Salomon. (No mention is made of the dark irony that Salomon is the one who released “1 Night in Paris,” the tape of him having sex with Paris Hilton.) Her most recent marriage, to a contractor and bodyguard named Dan Hayhurst in 2020, fizzled out after a year.
“Pamela, A Love Story” only briefly touches on Anderson’s friendship with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and focuses more on her fierce commitment to animal rights. (She talks of enduring a humiliating Comedy Central roast because they agreed to make a hefty donation to PETA.) In a comeback finale that would feel too contrived for a scripted drama but actually transpired in real life, Anderson is cast as Roxie in “Chicago” on Broadway and proceeds to win over the crowds and critics alike. It’s certainly not the last chapter of Pam Anderson’s roller coaster of a life and career, but it’s at least a temporary happy ending — one she has fully earned.
