As a baby of the Nineties, I am very excited to see how Hulu portrays the saga of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s stolen “dwelling video” within the collection “Pam & Tommy” that debuts this week.
Hulu would not actually must do all that a lot work to make a compelling present as a result of the true life true story was completely bonkers.
Sebastian Stan portrays Tommy Lee. Lily James portrays Pamela Anderson.
Seth Rogen portrays a man named Rand Gauthier. With out Rand, the world would by no means have seen Pamela and Tommy’s X-Rated honeymoon escapades. Escapades that might ultimately generate an estimated $100 million in income whereas additionally pioneering an artwork type: The leaked celeb intercourse tape. Inside just some years this artwork type would remodel Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian into everlasting superstars. Kim Kardashian’s intercourse tape would turn into the best grossing instance within the style.
Pam and Tommy’s story begins in 1995 at this Malibu mansion:
(Picture by Jason Kirk/Getty Photos)
Tommyland
In case you are sufficiently old to recollect “MTV Cribs,” then chances are you’ll recall Tommy giving a tour of the above dwelling, which he dubbed “Tommyland,” in an episode that aired in 2000, roughly two years after his marriage to Pamela ended. You might recall Tommy exhibiting off his kitchen shark tank, huge pool, nightclub, pillow room, master suite intercourse swing and in-home Starbucks cappuccino machine.
The above mansion additionally makes a short cameo in Hulu documentary “The Curse of Von Dutch: A Model to Die For,” which tells the historical past of the style model Von Dutch. In keeping with the documentary, the world at massive most likely by no means would have heard of Von Dutch if Tommy hadn’t made the last-minute resolution to put on a Von Dutch TV shirt throughout the filming of his “Cribs” episode. That documentary can also be very attention-grabbing, value watching… I swear I am not getting paid by Hulu… however I might settle for a free month or two if somebody from their promotions division felt like reaching out 🙂
Tommy Meets Pamela
Tomme Lee and Pamela Anderson met for the primary time at a Hollywood nightclub on New Years Eve 1994. He licked her face. She gave him her cellphone quantity. A fairy story meet-cute.
Quick ahead six weeks.
Tommy purchased his Malibu mansion on February 14, 1995 for $837,886. That is the identical as round $1.5 million in at this time’s {dollars}. On February 15 Tommy calls Pam for the primary time.
On that cellphone name he learns Pam is about to fly to Cancun. He spontaneously decides to hitch her. Really, he principally stalks her. But it surely works. Pam and Tommy are married on the seaside in Cancun on February 19, 1995 – 96 hours after that first cellphone name. He wore board shorts with no shirt, she wore a white bikini. For his or her honeymoon, they lease a yacht and power round for a couple of days. They’ve intercourse rather a lot. And so they movie lots of their romps on Tommy’s camcorder.
Upon returning to Los Angeles, they settle into Tommy’s new Malibu mansion. She is on the peak of her Baywatch fame and the present is primarily filmed at a seaside just some minutes away. So all of it works out fairly properly.
Tommy’s home was constructed from scratch on a 2.3 acre property just some years earlier, in 1991. But even supposing it was just a few years previous, the couple embarks on an enormous renovation mission.
In an article revealed in Rolling Stone again in 2018, contractors who have been employed to work on the house again in 1995/1996 described how Pam and Tommy spent “an obscene sum of money” over a number of years turning the house right into a “hedonist’s paradise.” An inside designer would later say, “They spent cash like they hated it.”
One of many contractors was…
Rand Gauthier
Rand Gauthier is definitely the son of a somewhat-famous actor from the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies named Dick Gautier. Rand modified the spelling of his final identify to “Gauthier” (including an “h”) to separate himself barely from his father’s legacy.
Within the Nineteen Eighties Rand starred in additional than 70 grownup movies underneath the identify “Austin Moore.” By the mid-Nineties he was working as an electrician.
Rand was employed by Tommy to re-do all {the electrical} wiring all through the Malibu home. Tommy continuously modified his thoughts about the place he wished retailers and lights to go. Tommy wakened most days after midday hungover and would change his thoughts continuously in regards to the work he wanted finished. He was not nice at paying individuals on time or he would refuse to pay individuals as a result of he thought the job wasn’t finished appropriately.
For no matter motive, Rand at one level believed he was owed $20,000 for companies rendered. That is round $36,000 in at this time’s {dollars}. Not nothing for an unbiased blue-collar man.
When Rand went to confront Tommy in regards to the unpaid debt, Tommy allegedly pointed a shotgun at him and ordered him to by no means come again.
Rand’s anger festered for months till he hatched a plan for revenge. His plan? To steal an infinite secure that Tommy stored within the storage, crack it open after which promote the weapons and jewellery he knew was stored inside. Rand knew he may evade the house’s safety techniques as a result of… HE INSTALLED THE SYSTEM!
This was the plan the Rand Gauthier enacted on an evening in October 1995. And by all accounts, it went off and not using a hitch.
When he acquired the secure to an undisclosed location, Rand found weapons, jewellery, the white bikini Pamela wore on the beachfront Cancun marriage ceremony… and the camcorder tape.
Pam and Tommy did not discover that the secure was lacking for TWO MONTHS. They lastly contacted police and employed a non-public detective in January 1996.
Inside a couple of months, Pam and Tommy started to listen to rumors that bodily copies of their intercourse tape have been being purchased and offered on the streets of Los Angeles. By late 1997, the tape had made its option to a comparatively new medium known as the world large net.
In November of 1997, Pam and Tommy signed an ill-advised contract with one of many on-line distributors that they hoped would at the very least give them some management and a share of income in trade for his or her copyright rights. As a result of the web is inconceivable to manage, Pam and Tommy have claimed they by no means made a penny from the tape’s roughly $100 million in gross sales… although they did doubtless make some cash when an expert grownup firm known as Vivid took-over distribution in early 1998.
For a bunch of causes that I am positive the Hulu present will discover in higher element, Rand Gauthier additionally by no means made a penny off the tape he stole.
And what occurred to Tommyland?
Tommy offered the Malibu mansion in 2005 for $2.5 million. It was offered once more in 2007 for $3.25 million. In November 2019, the mansion was fully destroyed in a fireplace.
Under is a video tour of the property from a yr earlier than that tragic fireplace. The intercourse swing, shark tank, pillow room and night time membership have been all changed:
By the way in which, there’s yet one more unusual twist on this story. From 2007 to 2008 Pamela was married to movie producer Rick Salomon. They have been then briefly re-married in 2014. Sarcastically, Rick is most-famous for being the person in Paris Hilton’s “leaked” celeb intercourse tape.
Pam has reunited with Tommy quite a few instances through the years as properly, although not legally.
