Pamela Anderson was almost written off ‘Baywatch’ after Tommy Lee sex tape leak: ‘This is a disaster’
nypost.com“After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun,” “Baywatch” co-creator and producer Michael Berk revealed that there were discussions about removing Anderson, 57, from the hit NBC series after her sex tape with Lee, 61, leaked in 1996.“When Pam’s sex tape came out, the studio said, ‘Look, write her out of a couple of episodes, we’ve got to figure out what we’ll do with this, this is a disaster,'” Berk recalled.
Anderson became a beloved celebrity from her role as C.J. Parker on “Baywatch” — but her whole life changed because of the notorious sex tape scandal.
The leaking of the home movie, shot by Lee on his honeymoon with Anderson between 1995 and ’96, made Anderson even more famous, to the point where it affected “Baywatch” in ways the creators and producers didn’t expect.“The next episode aired got twice the ratings,” Berk said. “It just shot up in the ratings.”Anderson, who got divorced from Lee two years after their sex tape leaked, looked back on the scandal in an unaired-interview that was featured in the doc. “It was stolen property,” she said. “It was two crazily naked people in love.
We were naked all the time and filming each other, being silly.”“But those tapes were not meant for anybody else to see,” Anderson added. “I have not seen it to this day, it was very hurtful.”Anderson and Lee’s sex tape was stolen by Rand Gauthier, who claimed the couple had not paid him for $20,000 of electrical work he did at their Malibu residence.He created a website selling bootleg copies of the video, and pretty quickly the footage spread far and wide.
Read more on nypost.com