Pam & Tommy.Photo: Erin Simkin/Hulu
Pam & Tommyis shedding new light onPamela AndersonandTommy Lee’s whirlwind romance.
Based on aRolling Stonearticle from 2014, the show starringLily JamesandSebastian Stantells the relatively unknown story of the couple’s infamous sex tape in the ’90s, including how the tape was stolen from their home and the legal battle that ensued after it was leaked and sold without their permission.
Despite Anderson and Leenot being involved with the show, showrunnerRob Siegel toldEntertainment Weeklyhe hopes the story “sets the record straight” about what the couple really went through.
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As youdive into the limited series, learn more about the true story behind it ahead.
When Did Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee Get Married?
Lee and Anderson met in December 1994, but officially connected when they took a trip to Cancún, Mexico in February 1995. 96 hours into their trip,the two decided to get marriedduring a beachside wedding.
“I don’t know if they were in love with each other,” witness and local club managerMarcos Corminas told PEOPLE at the time. “But they really liked each other a lot and were having a lot of fun.” Corminas added that the wedding “was very informal, very spontaneous.”
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How Did Rand Gauthier Know Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee?
As the couple moved in together, they hired a group of people to renovate their Malibu mansion, which is how Rand Gauthier comes into the story.
During the home renovations, Gauthier did work for the couple as an electrician. However, he was eventually let go when Anderson and Lee fired a group of workers on the renovation project. In addition to losing work, the couple also refused to pay him, saying the work was “shoddily done,” according toRolling Stone.
Gauthier and a general contractor eventually went back to the house to gather their tools, when Lee allegedly pointed a shotgun at them and ordered them to get off his property.
How Was Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s Sex Tape Stolen?
During an interview withRolling Stone, Gauthier said that he “spent the entire summer of 1995 preparing for the heist,” including driving to their house at night and sitting outside in his car.
Five days before Halloween, Gauthier decided to carry out his plan. According to Gauthier, he arrived at the house at 3:00 a.m., while Anderson and Lee were asleep. He draped a yak fur rug over himself to attempt to resemble a dog, then jumped over the fence. He disabled the security cameras, which he initially installed, and walked into Lee and Anderson’s bedroom.
He eventually went to the garage, where he tipped the safe onto a dolly he brought with him and left the home. He toldRolling Stonethat he took the safe to a “secure location” and cut the back of the safe off with a saw. In addition to finding family photographs, jewelry, and the white bikini Anderson wore to her and Lee’s beach wedding, Gauthier discovered the sex tape, a Hi8 tape used for a handheld camcorder.
Who Leaked Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s Sex Tape?
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Did Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee Sue Over the Leaked Sex Tape?
It wasn’t until two months after Gauthier’s burglary that Anderson and Lee first noticed the safe was missing. They filed a police report and hired a private investigator named Anthony Pellicano, who eventually connected Ingley to the leaked tape. (Ingley said he got the tape from interior designer Guerin Swing.)
Anderson and Lee requested a temporary restraining order againstPenthouse, which was denied, and the magazine eventually released its June issue with Anderson on the cover and details of the sex tape inside. They didn’t have copyright permission to use images from the tape, so they used stolen Polaroids of the couple from 1995.
Internet Entertainment Group (IEG) founder Seth Warshavsky later obtained a copy of the tape and began broadcasting it online. In an effort to end things once and for all, Anderson and Lee settled. Under the impression that Warshavsky would only be allowed to broadcast the tape online, and not fully comprehending the reach the internet would have, the couple signed over their copyright of the tape.
Did Rand Gauthier Go to Jail For Stealing the Sex Tape?
According toRolling Stone, Gauthier resides outside Santa Rosa, California, where he works as an electrician and “grows marijuana in his garage.”
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How Long Were Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee Together?
Anderson and Lee were marriedfrom February 1995 to 1998 and havetwo sons together, Brandon and Dylan.Anderson and Lee briefly got back togetherin 2008, but it didn’t last.
Though they hada tumultuous relationship, Anderson has regarded Lee as the “love of her life.”
“There was Tommy and then there was nobody else. He was the love of my life. We had a wild and crazy beginning that was too much for both of us,“Anderson told PEOPLE in 2015. “It really was love at first sight. I only knew him four days before I married him. My kids are grateful to be born out of true love. Everything else I was trying to piece together.”
source: people.com
