When Barry Egan met Pamela Anderson: “Not that I’m a role model or anything. But I wanted to talk about important issues.
July 15, 2006. I’m bored and waiting for the phone to ring in my room at the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.
was told yesterday that the interview with Pamela Anderson would take place today.
And now it looks like it could be tomorrow.
The phone next to the bed rings. When I pick it up, it’s the nice woman who works for Pamela and says she’ll be doing the interview at her home in Malibu tomorrow morning.
Through the hazy jet lag, July 16th is finally here…
A Russian driver took me to Malibu in the manner of Steve McQueen in that car chase scene in the 1968s Bullitt. So much so that we arrived almost 90 minutes early.
On the way to Anderson’s house, I had repeatedly asked him to slow down, but he seemed to ignore me. I don’t want to sit outside her house 90 minutes like a nervous Irish stalker, so I suggest he take me to a coffee shop off the freeway instead.
I’m paying for the latte when I look out the window and see what looks like a scene from a bad Hollywood movie.
Only the poor driver seems to play the leading role in it.
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Pamela Anderson with Tommy Lee in December 2005. Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images
He parked the van in the wrong spot and Malibu Fire Department officials ask him for his driver’s license and then, disconcertingly, “Get out of the car, sir.” Unwisely, he yells at her in broken Eastern European English from a “famous client”.
Things get even more complicated when two police cars are called to the scene. They arrive at 1.15pm.
My appointment with Ms. Anderson was at 1 p.m. There are no taxis in sight. Realizing I have nothing to lose, I outline my plight to one of the alpha male cops.
Maybe it’s the magic words “Pamela” and “Anderson” that make sure of that.
video of the day
I’ve never seen a police officer offer anyone a ride so quickly in my life. Soon we’ll be speeding down the Malibu Freeway. Just as the unfortunate Russian driver is sadly on his way to the police station.
I arrive 45 minutes late. Seeing my scared face as I exit a police car at the door of her Malibu beach house, Ms. Anderson bursts out laughing.
“It’s not the first time the police have been in the house,” she smiles and invites me inside.
Her home is an Old World retreat: hardwood floors, vintage paintings, and a view of nothing but the Pacific Ocean for miles and miles.
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An image of Pamela Anderson and her son featured in Pamela: A Love Story. Photo: Netflix
It’s far from Canada, where she was born in 1967.
“All I knew was that I’d probably have to leave the island in Vancouver. Most of my friends are still there. You don’t usually leave them,” she says.
“People were born and raised there and they never leave it. I had never been on an airplane before coming here. It was a big, big step.”
You sound like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz leave Kansas.
“That was me! And here’s my toto!” She laughs when the dog Luca Pizzeroni runs through the living room.
Pamela’s Scandinavian grandfather, a healer named Herman, taught her the value of New Age thinking, meditation and dream interpretation. He also taught her never to be afraid.
“Anything I’ve done that I was absolutely terrified of doing has rewarded me the most — ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway,'” she smiles.
She suggests going to the beach, having lunch while sitting on a blanket, and continuing the interview. The dog comes with me.
I ask her to help me separate fact from tabloid fiction.
After a four-day romance, did she and Tommy Lee really get married on the beach in Cancun in 1995?
“Yes. He tracked me down at a photo shoot and I married him. He found me in Mexico.”
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Pamela Anderson in present time on new Netflix show Pamela: A Love Story
She adds, “But anyway, after four days we really loved each other and we got married.”
And what did your mother say?
“She lost 14 pounds in two weeks. She freaked out. She learned all about Tommy from American television. She thought it was awful.”
Far worse than horrible was when the private, intimate video of you and Tommy was stolen from a safe in a house, sold and circulated on the internet without your permission…
“I was so devastated. I knew it before it came out. I was seven months pregnant, so I was under a lot of stress,” she recalls.
“My mother tried to help me get through it, but it was horrible, horrible. We had our house renovated with construction workers. We found out our electrician was a porn star!” She laughs.
How to Hire a Pornstar as an Electrician Didn’t you check his references?
“We didn’t hire him ourselves. They were just contractors! That was a tough time.”
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Pamela Anderson and her sons Brandon Thomas Lee and Dylan Jagger Lee in 1999. Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc, via Getty Images
Pam filed for divorce from Lee in 1998. The couple briefly reunited in 1999, but it didn’t work out.
I wonder how Tommy is as a father to Brandon and Dylan who are in school today.
“Well,” she says, “when he’s around, he’s really nice. He is good.
“I hate getting involved in all of this because I love Tommy, but he’s really like my third child.
“We’re going on vacation together. we love each other He’s a great guy, but he has this whole rock star mentality of never growing up.”
You always seem to end up almost becoming a mother to these immature villains who never grew up.
“I have to go back to therapy because I had to talk about that part of it,” she laughs.
“You know what’s the attraction?”
Do you fall into the same patterns in men?
“Yeah, that’s why I’m kind of taking a break from dating. It really should be a bonus to my life and my kids.”
How would you describe yourself as a mother?
“I think I’m a great mother. I have two wild little boys. You are funny! They’re smart and they’re incredible athletes. But the great thing about them is that they wear everything on their sleeve. There’s no hiding things.
“In some cultures where you start standing up for things, we learn to become manipulative. We say ‘please’ to get the food. You don’t do it because you feel it authentically,” she says.
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Pamela Anderson at a Peta anniversary celebration in Los Angeles in 2015. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage via Getty Images
I ask her if she ever feels like people think they know so much about this superwoman who created her – Pamela Anderson Inc – that they sometimes forget that she’s a human being who can be hurt like the rest of us.
she nods.
“I don’t see any press here or anything like that,” she says, “but especially a few years ago, you started to think that the picture wasn’t very vulnerable and people didn’t really care.
“They just think it’s funny and camp and stuff, but as I got older and had my kids and went through a divorce, there’s a stronger sense of a ‘girl-girl’ thing.
“No one is angry anymore. I see a lot of support from women.”
The support was much needed in 1996 when she miscarried. A miscarriage is something women grieve in private with the help of close friends. Pamela Anderson has had to address it publicly, courtesy of those sensitive souls in the tabloids.
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Pamela Anderson at the 23rd Annual American Music Awards in 1996. (Photo by Steve Granitz Archive/WireImage)
“Oh, it’s so hard,” she says.
“But there are a lot of people who are having a harder time than me at the moment.
“I look at it and I’m like, ‘Just leave them alone, poor family.’
“I know it’s the culture now, such a tabloid culture. But it’s so strange that we’re so fascinated and interested in other people.”
Quoting Bono, she continues: “Celebrity is currency. You might as well use them.
“People who don’t use it run from club to club – you want to tell them, ‘There are more important things in life.’
“Not that I’m a role model or anything. But I wanted to talk about important issues.
“I started using it as a vehicle to convey information,” she says, referring to animal rights.
“Words are powerful. I always say this to my children: ‘Our words are powerful. Choose your words and choose your desires’.
“I was more into Carl Jung than Freud,” she continues.
“I love Jung and have read many of his books. I love his dream interpretation. Your mind and the world you live in are as real as each other. So why not make the world outside your mind as interesting as the world inside your head?”
That could be the Matrix, I say.
“I know! I know! I could be at home in Canada dreaming about it, or I could be here!”
“Well,” she laughs. “Can I take you to LAX or will the police take you?”
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/when-barry-egan-met-pamela-anderson-not-that-im-a-role-model-or-anything-but-i-wanted-to-talk-about-important-issues-42329652.html When Barry Egan met Pamela Anderson: “Not that I’m a role model or anything. But I wanted to talk about important issues.