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With the controversial events of Hollywood history permeating film and TV should we
encourage gratuitous glorification?
by Charlie Cooper
1st of February 2022
Put yourself in the shoes of a young Hollywood starlet, with a rockstar husband, having experienced pressure from the star making machine. Now consider this, at the absolute peak of your fame, having your most private and intimate moments leaked out into the world and seen by anyone who desires, besides the huge career implications, what effect can this have on a young star?
1995 saw the theft and subsequent distribution of a private sex tape starring Pamela Anderson and her, at the time, husband Tommy Lee. The upcoming Hulu/ Disney+ series, “Pam & Tommy”, sets out to dramatise the events of the scandal. Biopics, by their very nature, have a tendency to gloss over, omit and glorify certain events for the big or indeed the small screen. The upcoming 8 parter sets out to cover the City of Angels’ most infamous celebrity scandal in the same way Mötley Crüe biopic, 2018’s “The Dirt”, curiously omitted this scandal among others. Some people have theorised that the couple were complicit in the distribution of the sex tape, a Proto Kim Kardasian if you will, however in private this could not be further from the truth.
“I don't ever want our kids to see it. Why would anyone ever willingly release something like that?”
Pamela Anderson
Pregnant with Lee’s first child, the pair were absolutely distraught by the fact the tape was leaked; with Pam as the more embarrassed ashamed half of the couple quoted saying “I don't ever want our kids to see it. Why would anyone ever willingly release something like that?”. Some might jump to this conclusion based on Anderson’s sex symbol status and the clear idolisation of her by predominately male audiences but the backlash she must face from that same fickle audience would be too much for most to bare. Pam’s disgust towards the situation compared to Tommy's arrogance, boasting to a close friend that he was proud of making history with the tape, proclaiming how they “broke the internet first”, shows the clear and ever-present distinct double standards between the sexualisation of men and women.
Whilst Anderson herself, now 53 years of age, has commented briefly on the series effectively dismissing it, stating that she has never heard of actors Lily James (of “Baby Driver” fame) and Sebastian Stan (“The 355” star and Marvel Studios’ “Bucky Barnes”) and “doesn’t care to know them”, proclaiming the series is, simply put, “a cheap knock-off”. In a now deleted tweet, Courtney Love added “ My heart goes out to Pammy further causing her complex trauma” and shaming Lily James “or whoever the f*** she is”. In stark contrast however, Tommy Lee approved of Marvel heartthrob Sebastian Stan’s portrayal of Lee.
There is a sick sense of irony in this story, a series about a non-consensually distributed sex tape, distributed non-consenually (at least by one of the primary people involved). One twitter user goes to mention “a series about listening to women, without Pam’s approval”. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, stop and ask yourself this; ‘Just because you can glamorise a Hollywood scandal, should you’?