Pamela: A Love Story is, essentially, Pamela Anderson’s and Netflix’s rebuttal to Hulu’s fictionalized Pam and Tommy miniseries. Anderson has made no bones about being upset that the story of the infamous sex tape, and the leak that made her private life public, was being told without her input. At the time, the tape was treated as this salacious celebrity joke, but its release traumatized her and robbed her of consent and agency; Hulu retreading that ground, without her, effectively snatched it from her again. This project, which dovetails with today’s release of her autobiography Love, Pamela, is about her reclaiming her voice in that story (and by the sounds of things, COUNTLESS juicy others).
It feels so right that she’d arrive at this in classic C.J. Parker style. A lot of Young People Today may look at this and think she’s evoking Jennifer Lawrence in that memorable red Calvin Klein, but at the time, we made multiple Baywatch: The Dress jokes about that outfit… and then learned it was inspired by a maillot. Not Pamela’s, but still, I call it a win for her. Pam was iconic in her Baywatch suit, she’s been iconic in her forthrightness, and she was iconic last night — both in this frock AND in her posture, honestly — while celebrating a story she told on her terms, giving her a voice in her legacy that could no longer be denied.
