Okay, let's unpack this. I want you to take a
second and mentally transport yourself back to
the mid -1990s. Right. If you were to close your
eyes and just try to conjure up a single image,
just one visual, that defined pop culture, celebrity
obsession, the sheer visual noise of that entire
decade, who do you see? It's almost inevitable,
isn't it? You don't see a politician. You don't
really see a musician, not in the same way. Right.
You see the red swimsuit. You see the peroxide
blonde hair. You see that smile that seemed to,
I don't know, take up the entire screen. You
see Pamela Anderson. You see Pamela Anderson,
exactly. For a solid 10 years, she was arguably
the most famous woman on the planet. I mean,
she was everywhere. Bedroom walls, locker rooms,
talk shows, tabloids. She was the definition
of the babe. The absolute icon of that specific
moment. But here's the thing, and this is why
we're doing this deep dive today. If you had
told anyone in 1995 or even 2005 or honestly
even... as recently as 2020 where Pamela Anderson
would be in February 2026, they would have laughed
you out of the room. Oh, absolutely. They would
have thought you were, I don't know, hallucinating.
It really is one of the most remarkable, improbable
cultural shifts we've seen in Hollywood history.
Maybe ever. It's a total reinvention. A complete
one. We're looking at the headlines right now,
this week in February 2026. And Pamela Anderson,
the icon of 90s pinups, the woman dismissed for
decades as just a sex symbol or a punchline,
is currently sweeping the 2024 and 2025 awards
season. It is absolutely wild. And we're not
talking about like a... People's Choice Award
or a Best Reality Star nod? No, not at all. We're
talking about the heavy hitters. A Golden Globe
nomination. A Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.
And this isn't for a cameo where she plays herself,
you know, winking at the camera. No, this is
for a lead role. For her performance in The Last
Showgirl. A lead role that critics are calling
a revelation. The BBC, The Hollywood Reporter,
Vulture. They aren't grading on a curve here.
They're not saying she's good for Pamela Anderson.
They're saying she is giving a transformative,
heartbreaking, nuanced performance. At 58 years
old, she has completely rewritten her own ending.
So that is our mission today. We're going to
trace this entire arc. And we have to go deep
because the surface level story, you know. blonde
bombshell gets taken seriously that doesn't actually
cover how crazy this journey is so much more
complex how do you go from being the centennial
baby of british columbia to the playboy mansion
survive the massive trauma of the stolen tapes
and the public mockery pivot to radical activism
and then emerge on the other side as a respected
actress a best -selling author and honestly kind
of a philosopher it's a massive story And we
have a huge stack of sources to get through to
really understand it. What are we looking at?
We're looking at her biography, the detailed
critical reception of a recent memoir, Love,
Pamela, which is like a key text here. Absolutely
central. Then the production notes and reviews
for new films and her extensive and frankly surprising
history of activism. So buckle up. We are diving
deep into the Pamela Sons. I love that term.
The Pamely Sons. It's catchy. But to understand
the Renaissance, we have to go back to the very
beginning. All the way back. I mean, the very
beginning, because her fame actually started
the minute she was born. This is one of those
facts that sounds like a PR agent made it up,
but it is actually true. It is. July 1st, 1967.
And that date is so significant. That is the
100th anniversary of Canada's founding, the centennial.
A huge national holiday. And Pamela Anderson
was the first baby born on that day in her region.
So she was named the centennial baby. She was
in the newspapers before she could even open
her eyes. It's almost prophetic, isn't it? Like
marked for visibility from day one. She didn't
seek it out initially. It was just thrust upon
her by the calendar. It literally was. But what's
interesting about her origins in Ladysmith, British
Columbia, isn't just that accidental fame. It's
the background. It's the texture of her childhood.
She has these deep Finnish roots. Right. Her
great -grandfather, Juho Haitianen. Exactly.
He came over from Finland in 1908. And her grandfather,
Herman, was this fascinating character. He was
a logger and a poet. A logger and a poet. You
don't hear that combination very often. You don't.
And looking at the sources, particularly her
memoir, this seems to be where Pamela gets her,
I don't know, her whimsical side. her romanticism
totally herman didn't just babysit her he built
a world for her he used to tell her stories about
fairies living in the forest about the trees
whispering to each other It sounds like a storybook.
It sounds very Grimm's fairy tales, but maybe
a bit lighter, a bit more magical. It does. And
she really internalized that. She has this worldview
that is very romantic, very connected to nature,
almost animistic. She believes things have spirits.
Which, when you fast forward to her life in the
Playboy Mansion or on the set of Baywatch, seems
like such a clash. It's a total contradiction.
It's a huge contradiction. But that fairy child
identity, I think it's the core of who she is.
It's maybe how she survived the cynicism of Hollywood.
She never really let go of that magic. There
is also this detail in her childhood that I totally
missed, and I honestly had to reread the notes
to make sure it was real. We always think of
her as this visual icon, right? The face, the
body. But she was musical. Yes. This is my favorite
fact. In the eighth grade, she wasn't just in
the band. She was a scat soloist on the saxophone.
Hold on. A scat soloist liked improvisational
jazz vocals while playing the sax. A scat soloist.
She would play, and then she would sing these
jazz rhythms. It implies a level of confidence
and creativity that goes way beyond just show
up and look pretty. Oh, way beyond. Jazz requires
listening. It requires timing. It's improvisational.
And here's where it gets really fun. She actually
used that skill decades later. Saw that. In 2025,
in the Naked Gun movie she starred in, she apparently
drew on that eighth grade talent for a solo scene.
I love that. It just shows that nothing is ever
wasted. You know, every little piece of your
life can come back. It all comes back. But let's
fast forward to the moment that changed everything.
The discovery. Right. Because usually these celebrity
discovery stories are exaggerated. You know,
I was drinking a soda at a counter and a scout
found me. They're always mythologized. But in
her case, it really was like a movie scene. It
happened in an instant. It really was. 1989.
She's living in Vancouver, working as a fitness
instructor. And she goes to a BC Lions football
game. Just a normal Saturday. She's wearing a
Labatt's beer t -shirt. And the cameraman, just
panning the crowd, spots her. Puts her face on
the jumbotron. And the crowd just loses its mind.
Not just a polite applause. No, it was a roar.
She had this magnetism that translated instantly
to a giant pixelated screen. People responded
to her on a gut level. It's wild to think about
that pre -internet virality. Today, that would
be a TikTok moment that goes global in an hour.
Right. Back then, it was just 50 ,000 people
in a stadium screaming for the camera to go back
to her. Exactly. And the reaction was so intense
that the brewery, Labatt's, they tracked her
down. Of course they did. They hired her as a
spokesmodel on the spot. Her boyfriend at the
time, a guy named Dan Nalichich, he produced
this poster of her called The Blue Zone Girl.
And that poster somehow makes its way to Playboy.
And once Playboy calls in 1989, that's it. That
is the rocket ship. She's on a plane to Los Angeles.
The whole trajectory changes. October 1989, she's
the cover girl. February 1990, she's Playmate
of the Month. And we need to pause on the Playboy
connection because it's not just a one -off gig
for her. It's fundamental to her story. She holds
the record. She holds the record. The record
for the most Playboy covers by any individual.
Her career with that magazine spanned 22 years.
22 years. She was the absolute face of that brand.
And for a deeper context, you have to remember
what Playboy was in 1990. It wasn't just a dirty
magazine. No, it was a cultural institution.
It was. Being a Playmate was like being anointed
as American royalty, even though she was Canadian.
It was this aspirational, glamorous thing. It
was the peak of that aesthetic. The big hair,
the curves, the airbrushing. And that visibility
launched her directly into television. She starts
with a small role on Home Improvement. Right.
Lisa the Tool Time Girl. Which was a huge show.
A massive sitcom. It was a minor role, basically
eye candy, but it got her foot in the door. Yeah.
But then came 1992. Baywatch. The show that defined
a decade. And I think we need to explain this
to our younger listeners because the media landscape
is so fragmented now. Baywatch wasn't just a
hit show. It was a monoculture event. It was.
At its peak, it was the most watched television
show in the world. In the world. Billions of
viewers. Pamela Anderson playing C .J. Parker
became the centerpiece of that entire phenomenon.
The slow motion running, the red swimsuit. It
was broadcast into living rooms from Berlin to
Tokyo to Rio. She was inescapable. But here is
a detail from the sources that just highlights
the disparity in Hollywood. We assume she was
making bank, right? She's the face of the biggest
show on earth. Do you know how much she was paid
for that first season? I looked this up and it
is shocking. Tell me. $1 ,500 per episode. You
are kidding. $1 ,500. $1 ,500. Meanwhile, the
show was sold into syndication globally, making
millions and millions and millions of dollars.
David Hasselhoff became incredibly wealthy from
it because he had producer points. Pamela. She
was one of the longest -serving cast members
from 1992 to 1997, and she became the absolute
breakout star. But financially, at the beginning...
She was barely making rent in Los Angeles terms.
That is just wild context. It really frames her
as someone who is generating massive value for
other people, studios, networks, producers. Everyone
but her. But she wasn't capturing that value
herself. She was the product, not the owner.
And she was hustling to make up for it. She did
barbed wire in 1996. Oh, barbed wire. The futuristic
Casablanca remake? That's the one. Which was
a critical flop at the time, though it has a
real cult following now. But talk about commitment.
She actually tattooed barbed wire on her arm
for the role. Why? So the makeup artist wouldn't
have to paint it on every day. That is insane
commitment. I'll just permanently mark my body
to save 20 minutes in the makeup chair. It speaks
to her impulsiveness, but also her dedication.
She was all in. Though I did read she finally
got it removed in 2016. Good for her. But that
tattoo became iconic in itself. It's interesting,
though. While she was ascending to this global
level of fame, there was this undercurrent of,
let's call it usage. That's a good word for it.
She was being used as an image, as a symbol.
And that brings us to the darker side of the
90s. Yeah. We have to talk about the tape. And
I think for a long, long time, the cultural narrative
around this was just so wrong. So wrong. It was
treated as a joke or as a savvy career move.
It was completely wrong. And recent sources,
especially the documentary Pamela, a love story,
have really corrected the record here. For years,
people treated it like a leaked sex tape, implying
she released it for fame. Right. Like it was
a PR stunt. Oh, oops. This got out at the beginning
of the Kardashian model. But the facts are clear
and legally documented. It was stolen. It wasn't
a leak. It was a theft. The tapes were in a safe
in her home. The safe was literally stolen from
her garage by a contractor who was angry about
a payment dispute. This was stolen property.
This was a burglary. And she tried to fight it.
She didn't just let it happen. She fought it
hard. She sued the distribution company, Internet
Entertainment Group. But... And this is the heartbreaking
part. She was pregnant with her son Dylan at
the time. Oh, man. The legal battle was incredibly
stressful. She was being deposed by lawyers who
were asking her horrific invasive questions about
her sex life, treating her like she was on trial.
And she was fearful for the pregnancy. Exactly.
Her doctor told her the stress was dangerous
for the baby. So she had to make a choice. Fight
for her copyright and her dignity or protect
her unborn child. What a horrible choice. And
she dismissed the case. She signed it away to
save her pregnancy. And the result of that was?
The company took that dismissal as a green light.
They started making the tape available everywhere
and their traffic tripled. She states clearly
in her recent interviews that she never monetized
that tape. She didn't make a dime off of it.
It made millions for other men and it humiliated
her. It's just infuriating. And even recently
with that Hulu series, Pam and Tommy, that came
out just a couple years ago, you'd think by the
2020s we would be more respectful. That was another
massive blow. She did not consent to that show.
She didn't participate. The producers claimed
they were telling the story sympathetically,
but they did it without her permission. So it's
the same pattern. It's the exact same pattern.
She felt that it was essentially profiting from
her trauma all over again. Lily James played
her and won awards for it, while Pamela was at
home having to relive the worst moment of her
life. It's a recurring theme. People taking her
story, taking her image, and selling it without
her permission. Constantly. And when you look
at that trauma, it actually goes back much further
than the 90s. It starts in her childhood. It
does. In 2014, she opened up about this at a
charity gala in Cannes. It is heavy. She revealed
a history of severe sexual abuse. This is hard
to even talk about. She was molested by a babysitter
between the ages of 6 and 10. She was raped at
12. She was gang raped at 14. God, when you hear
that and then you look at her public persona,
this bubbly, smiling, everything is fun attitude
she maintained for decades. It's just, the resilience
is... Unbelievable. It really recontextualizes
everything. She wasn't just a dumb blonde trope,
which is how the media painted her. She was a
survivor. She learned to dissociate. She learned
that being the object was a way to survive. She
mentioned in her memoir that she learned to leave
her body. Wow. That skill leaving her body probably
helped her survive the invasion of the paparazzi
in the 90s. It's a defense mechanism. A brutal
one. And despite all of that, she kept working.
I mean, looking at the 2000s and 2010s, she never
stopped. She couldn't stop. She couldn't afford
to stop, right? She couldn't afford to stop.
She had financial troubles, largely due to bad
management and spending, but she kept hustling.
She produced and starred in VIP for four years.
She did Stacked, where she played a bookstore
employee. Kind of winking at her own image? Completely.
Yeah. But then she really pivoted to reality
TV. And looking at this list... She was everywhere.
It feels like she was on a world tour of reality
television. She was. Dancing with the Stars.
She did the U .S. version twice, season 10, and
the All -Star season 15. Yeah. Then she did the
French version, season 9. She was a popular booking.
Then she did Dancing on Ice in the U .K. That's
a lot of dancing. But it's the Big Brother franchise
that really shows the global hustle. Usually
when a star goes on Big Brother, it's seen as
the end of the line. It's sort of the last resort.
Right. She did Big Brother in the UK, Big Brother
in Australia, Big Brother Germany, Big Brother
Bulgaria. Wait, Bulgaria? Yes. And Big Boss in
India. India too. She was in the house for three
days in India, wearing a sari, sweeping the floors,
interacting with Bollywood stars who were awestruck
by her. It's surreal to even picture. And she
even did pantomime in London. She played the
genie in Aladdin. Oh, wow. For our American listeners,
pantomime is this very specific British Christmas
theater tradition. It's campy. It's loud. And
there was Pamela Anderson, the biggest sex symbol
in the world, playing the genie at the New Wimbledon
Theater. What does that tell you about her, that
she's willing to do all of that? It tells me
she has zero ego about status. She's a worker.
She needed to pay the bills, so she went where
the work was. She was often the punchline during
these years, subjecting to that has -been narrative,
but she was always in on the joke. She knew what
she was doing. She knew what the game was. She
showed up, she smiled, she collected the check,
and she went home. While she was doing all this
reality TV, though, she was building this entirely
different identity as an activist, a parallel
life. And I think this is where people really
start to get surprised by Pamela Anderson, because
it wasn't just I love puppies. It was radical.
Absolutely. Most people know about PETA. She's
been a PETA heavyweight for decades. She wasn't
just a donor. She was the face of their most
controversial campaigns. I remember the ads.
They were always on the news. They were designed
to shock. They were. All animals have the same
parts, Ad. She was in a bikini, but her body
was marked up like a butcher's chart rump, ribs,
shoulder. It was incredibly confronting. And
that got banned, right? It was banned in Montreal
for being sexist. Yeah. And Pamela's response
was classic. She called the ban puritanical.
She wrote, in a city known for its exotic dancing.
How sad that a woman will be banned from using
her own body in a political protest. She has
a point. It's her body. If she wants to use it
to save cows, who is the government to stop her?
Exactly. But her commitment to animals goes deep.
It's not a PR stunt. No, it started way back.
She became a vegetarian in her teens because
she saw her father cleaning a deer he'd hunted.
Seeing the bloody deer, that visceral reality
of death, changed her. She went vegan in her
20s, way before it was trendy in Hollywood. But
while the animal rights stuff fits her brand,
her anti -pornography crusade is a fascinating
pivot. This is the one that really throws people.
It stops people in their tracks. Yeah. The woman
with the most Playboy covers is anti -porn. It
sounds like hypocrisy on the surface. It sounds
like pulling up the ladder after you've climbed
it. Right. But when you actually read her arguments,
it's much more nuanced. In 2016, she co -authored
a Wall Street Journal op -ed. Her co -author.
This is the best part. Orthodox rabbi Shmuleybo
Teach. That is the most unexpected duo I have
ever heard of. Pamela Anderson and a rabbi. It
sounds like the setup for a joke. To say the
least. They wrote a book together called Lust
for Love. And their argument wasn't from a place
of religious shame, exactly. They called online
porn a public hazard. They argued for a sensual
revolution. What does that even mean, a sensual
revolution? Essentially, they were distinguishing
between eroticism and pornography. Anderson argues
that high -speed, hardcore, mechanical online
porn desensitizes people. It destroys intimacy.
So it's about the connection. It's about connection.
She believes in eroticism, which is about...
connection, slowness, sensuality. She felt that
the industry she helped build had morphed into
something monstrous and cold. So she's not anti
-sex. She's anti -commodification. Exactly. She's
saying, I own my sexuality. I don't want it commodified
in this detached, aggressive way. It's a surprisingly
philosophical stance. She's actually aligning
herself more with certain strands of radical
feminism than with the porn industry. It's way
more complex than people give her credit for.
Or even more. And speaking of unexpected alliances
and radical stances, we have to talk about her
political activism. Because she went to bat.
For Julian Assange. Julian Assange. This wasn't
just a tweet of support. She dedicated years
to this. No, she was there. She went to Bill
Marsh Prison, a high security prison in London,
to visit him multiple times. I remember seeing
the photos. She would show up looking incredibly
glamorous, but serious. It was a statement. She
used her visibility as a weapon. She knew the
cameras would follow her. So she went to the
prison wearing these statement coats with slogans
on them to force the media to talk about Assange.
She called him a hero. She publicly challenged
the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison,
to help him. Didn't she go on Tucker Carlson?
She did. And this got her a lot of flack from
the left. I can imagine. She went on Tucker Carlson's
show on Fox News specifically to ask Donald Trump
to pardon Assange. That is a very specific and
very brave strategy. It is. And she wrote to
Vladimir Putin. She wrote to Putin about what?
To save whales. She wanted to stop the importation
of whale meat or seal products into Russia. and
she actually met with Kremlin officials. She
really will talk to anyone. That's the takeaway
here. Pamela Anderson does not fit in a political
box. She supports Green Party candidates. She
supports Assange. She talks to the Kremlin about
whales. She goes on Fox News. It's issue based.
It's completely issue based. She engages with
whoever she thinks has the power to fix the specific
problem she cares about. She is fearless in that
way. She doesn't care if it looks bad to her
liberal friends if she thinks it will save a
whale. So we have the pinup, the survivor, the
reality. star, the radical activist. But then
around 2022, something shifts again. The narrative
starts to change. The Pamela Zahn's begins. It
starts, interestingly enough, on Broadway. And
Broadway is a cruel place. You can't edit a live
performance. If you can't act, the audience knows
instantly. There's nowhere to hide. And she was
cast in Chicago. She played Roxy Hart. And the
reviews were rave. It wasn't just, oh, she didn't
trip. It was, she understands this character.
I mean, the character is kind of perfect for
her. It is. Roxy Hart is a woman who craves fame,
who was used by the media. Pamela brought her
own life experience to that role. She received
standing ovations. And then came the documentary.
Pamela, a love story on Netflix. This was the
turning point. This was everything. It was crucial
because it was produced by her son, Brandon Thomas
Lee. For the first time, she had control. No
stolen tapes, no unauthorized biopics. She told
her story her way. And it coincided with her
memoir, Love, Pamela. Which hit hashtag two on
the New York Times bestseller list. And so we
need to talk about the writing in that memoir.
Celebrity memoirs are usually ghostwritten. They're
usually bland. This book is poetic. Really? It's
interspersed with her own poetry. Wait, she wrote
poetry in the book? Yes. Yeah. And it's raw.
She talks about writing as... It was the voice
of the girl who listened to her grandfather's
stories about the whispering trees. It's her
authentic voice finally coming through. Finally.
And that documentary led directly to her current
moment, right? To The Last Showgirl. It did.
The director, Gia Coppola, part of the famous
Coppola dynasty, watched that documentary. She
saw a scene where Pamela is without makeup, just
talking about her life. Gia saw a raw, unguarded
quality. And she decided she wanted her for her
film, The Last Showgirl. But there was drama
getting the script to her. This is the part that
makes me so angry on her behalf. It's infuriating.
It is. Gia sent the script to Pamela's agent.
The agent turned it down. Did he even show it
to her? No. He didn't even tell Pamela. He just
assumed, oh, Pamela Anderson doesn't do indie
dramas. She does reality TV or cameos. He gatekept
her. He decided what her career was. That is
the story of her life, isn't it? Men deciding
what she's allowed to be. Exactly. But Gia Coppola
didn't give up. She DM'd Pamela's son, Brandon,
on Instagram. Social media saves the day. She
said, I have this script. I think your mom is
perfect for it. Thank goodness for DMs. Seriously.
Yeah. Because Brandon showed it to Pamela. Pamela
read it and said, this is me. I have to do this.
And she accepted. And now because of that DM,
she is nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG
Award. It almost didn't happen. It almost didn't
happen. And what's the role? Why is it hitting
so hard with critics? She plays a veteran showgirl
in Las Vegas, a woman who has been wearing the
feathers and rhinestones for 30 years. But the
show is closing. She is aging out of the industry.
She has to figure out who she is when the spotlight
turns off. It's incredibly meta. It's her life.
It mirrors her own life perfectly. Being looked
at, aging in an industry that values youth, finding
dignity in the next chapter. The reviews say
she plays it with zero vanity. She appears on
screen with barely any makeup. She's not playing
Pamela Anderson, the brand. Not at all. The BBC
called her a revelation. The Hollywood Reporter
called it a transformative performance. It's
perfect casting. And at the same time, she's
doing the Naked Gun reboot. The comedy. Which
is such a fun full circle moment. Back in the
90s, she was offered a role in Naked Gun 3313
and churned it down. Now, 30 years later, she's
co -starring with Liam Neeson in the 2025 sequel.
So she's flexing both muscles. It shows she can
do the heavy drama, but she hasn't lost that
sense of humor. She can still be funny. So she's
winning awards. She's in blockbusters. But where
is she actually living? Because she's not in
Hollywood, is she? She's not hitting the red
carpets every night. No. And this is the final
piece of the puzzle, the epilogue to the story.
She moved back to Ladysmith. Back to British
Columbia. Back to her childhood home. The one
her grandmother owned. The very same. She bought
it from her grandmother years ago. She renovated
it. And now she lives there with her dogs. She
has a huge vegetable garden. She calls the farm
Arcady. She's farming. The woman from the Playboy
Mansion is farming. She's effectively a farmer.
She's canning vegetables. She's making jams.
And that led to her cookbook, I Love You, Recipes
from the Heart. Now, usually when a celebrity
releases a cookbook, I roll my eyes. It feels
like a cash grab. Here is my favorite salad.
Is this that? Not at all. This book is legitimate.
The photography alone was nominated for a 2025
James Beard Award. Whoa. OK, for those who don't
follow the food world, a James Beard nomination
is effectively the Oscars of cooking. It's the
highest honor. It's not a vanity prize. It is
a serious validation from the culinary world.
Exactly. Drew Barrymore and Martha Stewart have
praised it. She has a show on the Flavor Network
called Pamela's Cooking with Love. It's very
earthy, very authentic. She talks about the dough
feeling like a body. Of course she does. It connects
back to that central revolution she talks about.
Cooking is a central act for her. It sounds idyllic.
It sounds like she finally found peace. It does.
She's baking pies, growing vegetables, and accepting
Golden Globe nominations via Zoom from her kitchen.
So when we step back and look at this whole journey
from the centennial baby to the jumbotron to
the stolen tapes, the activism, and now this
massive critical acclaim, what does it all mean?
What's the lesson here? I think it's a story
about control. For 30 years, Pamela Anderson
was a product. That's the word. She was an image
on a jumbotron, a centerfold, a character in
a swimsuit, a punchline. She was defined by what
men wanted her to be. She was the vessel for
everyone else's fantasies and everyone else's
profit. And now. Now, she defines herself. She
reclaimed her story with the documentary. She
reclaimed her intellect with her writing. She
reclaimed her body with her activism. And she
reclaimed her talent with The Last Showgirl.
She took the pieces of her life that were stolen
or mocked, and she put them back together into
something undeniable. It's resilience, pure and
simple. I mean, she's been married five times.
She's lost fortune. She's been mocked by the
entire world. And she ends up back home in Canada
winning awards and baking pies. It's the ultimate
comeback. But I think the most poignant thing
she said recently was about the awards. She was
asked how it felt to finally win. And she said,
I always say the win is in the work. The win
is in the work. After everything, the fame, the
money, the scandals, she has realized that the
only thing that matters is the craft. Doing something
you love for your soul, not for the applause,
but for the act itself. That is a powerful place
to land. And I want to leave you with this thought.
In a world that is obsessed with image, an obsession
that Pamela Anderson frankly helped create for
a whole generation, she has pivoted entirely
to substance. Does her journey suggest that the
only way to really survive fame is to eventually
dismantle the persona that created it? That is
the question. Can you kill the icon to save the
person? I think she proves you can. Something
to think about. If you want to see that meat
chart ad we talked about or check out her reading
list from the Criterion Closet, which is fantastic,
by the way, she recommends La Dolce Vita Check,
the show notes. We've got links to all of it.
Thanks for listening. Catch you on the next deep
dive.