You can see why Disney+ have made a biopic about Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, says Tom Nicholson in Esquire. When the pair first met at a New Year’s Eve party in 1994, they were already massive celebrities: he was the 32-year-old drummer for Mötley Crüe, she was the 27-year-old Baywatch bombshell. And the first thing Lee did – despite having a girlfriend at the time – was lick Anderson’s face “from chin to temple”. The following February, after a whirlwind four-day romance, they were married barefoot on the beach. “The groom wore shorts; the bride wore a bikini.”
The couple’s honeymoon sex tape is what made them really famous, says Jane Mulkerrins in The Times. It was stolen from their house, albeit inadvertently. Rand Gauthier, an electrician who claimed Lee owed him money, pinched the couple’s safe – and inside it he found the 54-minute home video, complete with “eight minutes of orgiastic delight”. Gauthier leaked what quickly became the world’s first viral celebrity sex tape – and by 2000, The Guinness Book of World Records had dubbed Anderson “the most downloaded star” of all time.
The couple split not long after, only to reunite briefly in 2008. “We’ve only given it a try 800 times,” Lee said at the time, “801, here we go.” Anderson has since rebranded as an activist, and refused to participate in Disney’s film. Lee, however, is excited. “Let everyone know we did it first,” he said last month. “Let the motherf***ers know, we broke the internet first.”