Dani Baniela

Pamela Anderson married Tommy Lee four days after they met. On their honeymoon they filmed themselves having sex. An electrician Tommy refused to pay stole their safe with the tape inside, the one with their sex on it. In 12 months the tape made $77 million. Pamela got absolutely nothing from it and never even watched it. Then Hollywood made a whole TV series about it without asking her. New Year's Eve, 1994. She was the biggest star on Baywatch and the most famous Playboy cover girl in the world. And her boyfriend was the drummer of Mötley Crüe. Six weeks later they ran into each other in Cancún. And four days later they got married on the beach. At her wedding she wore a bikini. They filmed everything. Boats, beaches, bed. 54 minutes of a honeymoon. Back in Malibu, Tommy was renovating the house. He fired an electrician named Rand Gauthier and kept his tools. Gauthier said he was owed $20,000. So he came back at night and stole a 500-pound safe out of their garage. He was hoping for guns and jewelry. He found a videotape. He took it to a porn producer. They cut it down to the sex. Then they sold it. In 1996 it hit the early internet, one of the first viral videos in history. Pam and Tommy sued for years. In the end an internet porn company kept the right to stream it. The tape made $77 million in under a year. "I blocked that stolen tape out of my life in order to survive." Her career took the hit. His didn't. Late-night hosts asked her about it on air. The marriage didn't survive either. In 1998 Tommy went to jail for spousal battery. She says it was the only time she was ever truly in love. Then the husbands. Kid Rock. Rick Salomon, the man who sold Paris Hilton's tape. Married, annulled, married again. A Hollywood producer: 12 days. In 2022 Hulu released Pam & Tommy, a series about the worst thing that ever happened to her. Nobody asked her permission. She refused to watch it. A year later she released her own memoir and her own documentary. No makeup. Her words. Some lessons are written in other people's mistakes. Watch it once. Remember it forever.