Less than a year after Hulu’s Pam & Tommy turned the titular couple’s sex tape theft into a caper dramedy, that show’s biggest naysayer, Pamela Anderson herself, is reclaiming coverage about her storied career in a big way, thanks to the simultaneous releases of her Netflix documentary and her autobiographical memoir. The actress and model has already been at the center of multiple high-profile headlines so far, as she claimed Tim Allen flashed his penis at her on the Home Improvement set and rehashed past claims that Sylvester Stallone attempted to win her over with a car and more. Now, she’s shared what might perhaps be an unexpected take on one of her earliest employers, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Considering her not-so-savory claims about the aforementioned Hollywood stars and others, one might think Pamela Anderson would be a key source of similarly salacious stories about Playboy magazine’s sex-consumed boss Hugh Hefner, who passed away in 2017 at 91 years old. But to the contrary, in an interview with The Times of London, the Baywatch vet named Hefner as being the one person in her career who could be counted on to not treat her the same way the rest of the world did at the time. And how did he treat her?
[With] complete and utter respect.
To be sure, Hugh Hefner has certainly been at the center of many stories and claims that paint him in a less positive light, particularly when it involved sex parties at the Playboy Mansion. But Pamela Anderson has almost always spoken of the Hef rather highly, both before and after his death, giving him much credit for helping launch her into orbit with her photo shoots for the mag, with her ascension to Playmate being quite the booster.
As well, Anderson spoke about how much her first Playboy appearance affected her attitude and feelings about herself at the time, saying:
I was painfully shy, and I hated that feeling. That’s why I did it. I just didn’t want that feeling anymore. Doing that first photoshoot gave me this little kind of portal on what it felt like to be a sensual woman. My sexuality was mine. I took my power back.
The Barb Wire star definitely isn’t alone in that respect, with many models over the years crediting Playboy and Hugh Hefner with inspiring feelings of self-love and confidence. It’s possible that Anderson could have achieved a similar career arc without the NSFW publication making her an object of lustful affection, but we’ll never really know what that reality would have been like.
Check out the trailer for Netflix’s Pam Anderson documentary below to get a peek at what her actual reality was like between those hectic early years and now.
Pamela, A Love Story will be available to stream for everyone with a Netflix subscription when it goes live on Tuesday, January 31, which is the same day that her highly anticipated memoir Love, Pamela will be released. While waiting to learn more about Anderson’s hectic and problematic rise to icon status, head to our 2023 TV premiere schedule to see what other projects are debuting soon.
