A chance encounter at Hollywood's most glamorous event has become a mirror for a much deeper wound. At the 83rd Golden Globes ceremony on 11 January, Pamela Anderson came face-to-face with Seth Rogen, the man she believes helped exploit the darkest chapter of her life—and the uncomfortable proximity left her feeling violated all over again.
The 58-year-old actress, resplendent in her role presenting the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, found herself mere metres from Rogen in the audience pit. In that moment, sitting just a short distance away from someone she holds partly responsible for re-traumatising her, Anderson made a quiet decision: she would leave the ceremony early and go to bed. The weight of unresolved feelings proved too much to bear in that gilded hall.
Days later, during an appearance on Andy Cohen's SiriusXM show, Anderson opened up about the awkwardness of that encounter and, more broadly, about the series that continues to haunt her. 'Seth Rogen, he did that [series] without talking to me, you know Pam & Tommy, and that was another—I just felt like, "Eh." You know?' she recalled, her tone a mixture of resignation and residual anger. 'Like how can someone make a TV series out of the difficult times in your life, and "I'm a living, breathing human being over here. Hello."'
The Unauthorised Series That Refused to Go Away
The 2022 Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy dramatised one of the most infamous episodes of the 1990s: the theft and distribution of a homemade sex tape featuring Anderson and her then-husband Tommy Lee. The series, created without Anderson's permission or input, depicted intimate moments from what she has repeatedly described as the worst period of her existence. Yet Anderson had no say in how her private trauma would be portrayed for millions to consume.
Rogen's involvement cut particularly deep. Beyond serving as an executive producer on the project, he also starred in the series, playing Rand Gauthier, the construction worker who stole the tape from Anderson and Lee's home in 1995. His dual role meant he had capitalised on her pain in two distinct ways—both behind the scenes and on screen.
When Cohen asked whether she had encountered Rogen at the Golden Globes, Anderson confirmed the uncomfortable proximity. 'He was in the pit at the Golden Globes so we were close,' she said. She admitted to feeling unsettled by the experience. 'I may have just felt like, "I'm not chopped liver over here,"' she shared, reflecting on the moment her heart sank at seeing him in that glittering room. 'I felt a little bit weird about it.'
The encounter had reverberated beyond the ceremony. In the quiet hours afterwards, as Anderson lay in her hotel bed, the hurt surfaced. 'I've been so busy working. I've done five movies in the last year. So, I've just been busy but sometimes it hits you and you feel kind of down,' she explained, describing the emotional whiplash of success colliding with old wounds.
'I don't know. It just felt like a little yucky,' she continued, searching for words to describe the visceral revulsion stirred by Rogen's presence. Yet even as she articulated her pain, a faint glimmer of hope flickered. 'But eventually, hopefully he will, maybe he'll reach out to me and apologise. Not that that matters.'
Pamela Anderson proves she is, was, and always will be that girl on the 2026 Golden Globes red carpet. 🤍 📸: Getty pic.twitter.com/oR8vMgKD5x
— Page Six (@PageSix) January 12, 2026
The Distinction Between Public Person and Violated Human Being
What angers Anderson most is not merely that the series was made without her consent—though that remains a profound violation. Rather, it is the philosophical breach it represents: the notion that public figures forfeit the right to protect their most intimate traumas from dramatisation.
'Well, you are free game. When you are a public person they say you have no right to privacy. But your darkest, deepest secrets or your tragedies in your life shouldn't be fair game for [a] TV series. That p—ed me off a little bit,' Anderson told Cohen with unmistakable conviction. The series depicted what she termed 'the worst time in my life', compounding the original injury with manufactured representation.
In previous interviews about Pam & Tommy, Anderson has been unsparing in her assessment. In her Netflix documentary Pamela, A Love Story, released in 2023, she stated plainly that producers 'should have had my permission' before making the series, noting that 'nobody really knows what we were going through at the time.' She has also made clear that she has never watched the series and has no intention of ever doing so. 'I have no desire to watch it,' she declared. 'I never watched the tape, I'm never going to watch this.'
Her refusal to engage with the dramatisation stands as an act of self-preservation. She will not relive that violation, not even in a sympathetic reconstruction. The boundary between being a public figure and being a human being deserving of privacy and dignity must be drawn somewhere.
When Cohen suggested that an apology from Rogen might genuinely 'mean something' to her, Anderson's answer revealed the complexity of her feelings. She acknowledged harbouring complicated emotions about the entire situation. Yet she also refused to carry the burden indefinitely. Ultimately, she said, there were 'worse things going on in the world'.
Still, the encounter at the Golden Globes served as a stark reminder that some wounds do not heal simply because time passes. They resurface, uninvited, in moments of public vulnerability—reminding us that fame does not make trauma any less real, and that some stories should never be told without the permission of the person living them.
