A year ago, Hulu announced that they were making a limited series called Pam & Tommy, about a specific period of time just after Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee got married and Rand Gauthier broke into their home and stole their honeymoon video. Gauthier sold their sex tape and of course the video became omnipresent in the 1990s. It was the first big celebrity sex tape. Tommy and Pam ended up suing everyone involved in the crime and they were tied up in court cases for years after they split. The limited series is about the crime, about Pam and Tommy’s reaction to it and their attempts to get the video off of the internet. Lily James stars as Pam, Sebastian Stan is Tommy and Seth Rogen plays Gauthier. Here’s the first trailer:
On one side, I feel like history has already been kind to Pam and Tommy on this particular issue, and the series will likely bring even more sympathy to them. This was never something they leaked themselves – the tape really was stolen, and Pam was devastated. This was fundamentally a privacy case and a proto-revenge p0rn case, which are still relevant issues today. On the other side, it bugs me that the trailer is so focused on Rand Gauthier (played by Seth Rogen) and that the vibe seems so… light. Like everything is one big laugh. That’s unfair to Pam and Tommy and the genuine ordeal they went through.
Acting wise, Lily James is already doing better than I expected? She’s not someone known for being good at North American accents, but she sounds okay here. Sebastian Stan really doesn’t look anything like Tommy Lee.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Hulu.
I don’t think both look much like Pam and Tommy, but they’re doing a lot better than Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball. And it looks like they put more effort into it than Kidman.
And no offence to Sebastian Stan, but I have to chuckle every time I see him as Tommy Lee. He looks like a teenager who dressed up as Tommy Lee.
I know it’s not going to please many commenters on this site (judging by previous posts!) but the reviews have started coming in for the Lucille Ball movie and they’re talking about another Oscar nomination for Kidman…
Well, the Oscar rarely goes to the best performance in each category. For example, Emma Stone’s performance in LaLa Land was not Oscar worthy.
Absolutely. But Emma Stone wasn’t Razzie-worthy in La La Land (in fact – I thought she was very good) and the way some have been anticipating Kidman’s turn as Lucille Ball you got the impression they were expecting the turkey of the year. Not so, apparently. Very positive reviews.
This is a tv series, so the scandal is being exploited for Emmys not Oscars.
The guy made I, Tonya, a movie that treats spousal abuse as a slapstick comedy element. I don’t have high hopes for how this will be handled.
It’s just about the sex tape? I was expecting more.
I am truly surprised because Lily James sounds *exactly* like Pamela Anderson.
But also, watching the trailer made me feel a little bit weird because what happened to them was truly terrible, and they spent years and years dealing with it. Now there’s a movie about the whole thing. It seems a bit like re-victimizing?
Lily James is doing a straight Brooklyn accent. Pamela Anderson is from Canada.
In her defense, there’s a Brooklyn in Nova Scotia. Maybe she got confused.
Lol. Well, I thought she sounded good 🙂
Brooklyn, Nova Scotia is located on the opposite coast to Vancouver Island, where Pamela Anderson is from. (I actually live in N.S. and the accent is vastly different from both Brooklyn NY’s and the West Coast’s! :D)
I never watched the tape and had no interest in seeing this….until this trailer dropped. Now I have ALL the interest in seeing this.
I thought this movie was going to be about their relationship. Stan looks more like Tommy than Lily looks Pam. If I had Hulu, I would watch it.
I would hope in an era like today when people are finally taking issues like leaked personal photos and revenge porn seriously that we would not be reveling in a story like this. It looks like a goofy movie which is not fair to the people who were hurt by this theft and exploitation. I remember people trashing Pam for being a slut, etc., after it came out when it was never intended to see the light of day. This is not a good look.
Pam got all the sh!t thrown at her and then some – this was a private moment by a married couple (i think they were married at the time it was shot).
Her image was ruined and I still think it affected her career.
I believe the tape was filmed on their honeymoon. So the ultimate private sexy time and yeah it was gross how it all landed on her when she did nothing wrong other than have sex with her husband.
Honestly people involved in this series are not that much better than those who stole the video, spread it, and those who watched it.
Now people will talk about it again and search for it and watch it. There was no need to make such a show, and it’s really disrespectful to Pam.
Yea, I don’t remember how this all went down in real time, but this seems like a campy take on something that was exploitative, illegal and traumatizing. Though Seth Rogen seems like such a d-bag and is perfectly cast.
This makes me cringe. I’m sure it’s going to be good but it’s about something horrific – I feel like revenge p@ rn is a form of r*pe. It ruined Pam’s public self even though she played sex pot, it had to feel horrible to have her real private moments stolen and watched by the world. I never watched the video and refuse to do so.
This this feels exploitive. Pamela Anderson has been clear about this time period.
Plus, Tommy Lee and Pam were gave always been charasmaic onscreen presences. LJ hasn’t been able to make things happen and SS needs a chaperone (Anthony Mackie) on press tours bc he has zero personality.
Lily James has had a successful film career, actually. She’s been in blockbusters. I don’t think she’s a great actress. She can’t pull off serious drama (see “Rebecca”), but she has a certain on-screen energy and she’s competent. As I said below, I don’t approve of this project on principle, but I think Lily is suited to the role and will probably do a good job with the material on hand.
That being said, she kind of gets on my nerves, lol.
I’m actually quite impressed at how much Lily James looks like Pamela.
I am too!
It’s from Graig Gillespie. So yeah, it’s gonna a be campy as hell and still get awards.
Seems like a missed opportunity not to use a Motely Crue song in the trailer…
According to one of Pamela’s friends, she hates this. I think it’s exploitative, not as much as the original theft and leaking of the tape but still pretty bad. Having your private sex/love life be leaked like that without your consent, having the world watch it and mock you, has got to be devastating. Having it made into light entertainment years later is like a slap in the face.
One of the actresses whose private pictures and videos were leaked in that incident from several years ago – where it happened to about 100 people at once, including Jennifer Lawrence, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kaley Cuoco – experienced depression and “massive shame” afterwards. I read an interview with her. Didn’t want to leave her house, had to go to therapy, etc. I think about that and it makes me feel that despite how much time has elapsed, this is still kind of cruel.
So, while it might be well made and well acted, I just think it’s cringey and problematic.
Yet on here people who had stuff leaked about them in The Fappening were shamed for years – eg Blake Liveley
Were they? I was not on here then. I know Jessica Brown-Findlay got a ton of heat for the videos she had on her phone, which were private and hacked. I thought that was gross victim-blaming and I’m disappointed to hear people here took part in that. Honestly, having your phone hacked is basically the modern version of having a safe stolen from your house, which is what happened to Pam and Tommy.
I wonder if Pam or Tommy were consulted on this?
I don’t think they were, or at least she wasn’t.
Tommy Lee has given his approval & is psyched about it. Pamela openly said she does not approve of it and is not involved.
This project is bullshlt
I will not watch it.
Tommy Lee is an abusive douche-bag POS and would sell his mother to get more attention for his flagging career. I will certainly not watch it, it’s vile and intrusive.
I like Pamela Anderson but she did marry Rick Solomon, a guy who sold his sex take with Paris against her wishes.
Pamela Anderson was sexually molested by a babysitter at 6 years old and gang-raped in her teens by her then boyfriend and his pals. Since then she’s repeatedly made bad choices in the men she got involved with and it’s clear she has huge self-esteem issues which have contributed to her seeing herself as only a sex object and unworthy of true love and respect. Try to imagine what trauma she’s suffered then understand why she married Rick Solomon.
The makeup and wardrobe departments did amazing work on this series. There’s four famous faces in it, and they all morphed into someone else entirely.