ALISON BOSHOFF: Pamela Anderson says the sex tape theft brought back pain of ... trends now
Pamela Anderson says that the theft of her sex tape recalled the powerlessness and trauma she experienced after being raped aged 12 – and attacks the high-profile drama series, Pam & Tommy, for 'retraumatising' her.
The Hulu series, which starred British actress Lily James as Anderson and Sebastian Stan as her husband Tommy Lee, played the release of the intimate scenes for laughs.
She said of the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated show: 'It gives me nightmares. I didn't sleep last night.'
And the model and actress, 55, added: 'I have no desire to watch it. Never gonna watch it. I never watched the tape, not gonna watch this. Who knows how they're gonna portray it. Nobody really knows what we were going through at that time. They should have had to have my permission.
Pamela Anderson says the theft of her sex tape triggered memories of feeling powerless after being raped aged 12 – and attacks the drama series, Pam & Tommy, for 'retraumatising' her
'I texted Tommy the other day and said: 'How do you feel about everything?' and he goes: 'Pamela, just don't let it hurt you as much as it did the first time.'
She went on: 'I blocked that out of my life in order to survive, it was a survival mechanism really, and now that it's all coming up again I feel sick from my whole stomach. My stomach right now feels like it has been punched.
'This feels like when the tape was stolen. Basically you are just a thing owned by the world.'
While on honeymoon in Mexico, the couple shot a 54-minute home video on a Hi8 videotape, mostly just 'goofing about'. It included about eight minutes of sex.
Pamela and Tommy became the centre of the first celebrity sex tape scandal in the 1990s
According to a police report filed by the couple in 1995, the tape was in a safe in their home alongside guns - an AK-47, FNC assault rifle, .45-70 caliber rifle and Mossberg stainless steel shotgun plus a Rolex, a gold-and-diamond Cartier watch and the white bikini that Anderson wore to their wedding.
The entire safe was stolen in October 1995 by electrician Rand Gauthier, who had been sacked by the couple and believed that they owed him money. He was played by comedian Seth Rogen in the film.
Gauthier says he wheeled their 6ft x 3ft x 4ft safe out of their garage strapped to a trolley in the dead of night after bypassing their security system.
He had no idea of its contents until he opened it up, and later recalled thinking: 'We put it in (the video machine) and see what it is, and of course, cha-ching! The dollar signs fly before our eyes. But we're going, this is the kind of thing people will get killed over.'
Anderson said of the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated show: 'It gives me nightmares. I didn't sleep last night.' Pictured: Lily James and Sebastian Stan in Pam & Tommy
In March 1996, aware that copies of the VHS were circulating, the couple filed a $10 million civil lawsuit against everyone they thought might have a copy, including Penthouse magazine. Meanwhile the tape was being sold on websites
