A breakdown of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's relationship timeline in reality versus the new Hulu limited series, Pam & Tommy. How accurate is it?
While many of the events portrayed in Pam & Tommy are surprisingly accurate, there are a few notable differences between Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's real-life relationship timeline and that of their fictional counterparts in the Hulu series. Telling the story of Anderson and Lee's whirlwind '90s romance and the public scrutiny following the leak of their private sex tape, Pam & Tommy does not take a chronological approach to its narrative, but rather zips back and forth through the histories of its characters. The couple is not featured prominently in the first episode, which focuses mostly on Seth Rogen's Rand Gauthier. However, Pam and Tommy take center stage in episode 2, with the majority of the episode being devoted to the incredible circumstances under which they met and quickly got married.
Pamela Anderson's role on the popular TV show Baywatch combined with the rock stardom of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee made the couple extraordinarily famous. They were constantly plagued by paparazzi and the public dissection of their private lives. Matters were made exponentially worse when spurned electrician Rand Gauthier stole their property and distributed the couples' sex tape far and wide. Becoming one of the first viral videos of the early internet era, Anderson and Lee were powerless to stop millions of eyes from invasively prying into private moments of their marriage. They were also relentlessly mocked in the media, illustrated in Pam & Tommy with a recreated Jay Leno interview.
Pam & Tommy is based on a riveting 2014 Rolling Stone article by Amanda Chicago Lewis chronicling the unbelievable series of events that led to the sex tape's release. However, the show also draws from over 25 years of media coverage and interviews with the real Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, who have spoken many times about both their relationship and the residual ramifications of the tape. What the media used as a late-night punchline was to them a very traumatic and damaging time in their lives. The Hulu series attempts to be sympathetic to the real people involved and shows impressive attention to detail, making its portrayal as close to the true events of Pam & Tommy as possible in many cases. However, there are of course some inaccuracies and changes made to format the story for television. Here's how the real timeline of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's relationship matches up with the characters of Pam & Tommy, as played by Lily James and Sebastian Stan.
Pam & Tommy Meet - New Year's Eve 1994
Pamela Anderson first met Tommy Lee at a Hollywood club called Sanctuary on New Year's Eve in 1994. Things happened in real life about the same way that they did in Pam & Tommy: Anderson sent shots of Goldschläger to everyone at the club, and Lee, high on ecstasy and drunk on champagne, took that as an invitation to come over and lick her face. Anderson then turned to lick her girlfriend's face and it became a chain reaction, just like in the series. She thought he seemed like a "cool, friendly, nice guy," so she gave him her number after the tenth time he asked (via New York Post and Rolling Stone). Anderson's friend Melanie genuinely did do her best to warn her away from the Mötley Crüe drummer, Tommy Lee, and Anderson seemed to agree.
Tommy Follows Pam to Cancún - February, 1995
Unlike in Pam & Tommy, Anderson did not leave for Cancún the next day, which means the couple did not get married only four days after their first meeting - it was four days after their second meeting. Lee said they spent six weeks playing phone tag before finally setting a time and place for their first date. In preparation, Lee went to a sex shop and bought $400 worth of toys. To his dismay, however, Anderson did not show, having seemingly forgotten about the date because of a work trip to Cancún. He offered to come and she told him not to. Lee agreed amiably, but then showed up in Mexico anyway. As the second episode of Pam & Tommy portrays, Lee called every hotel in Cancún until he found the one Anderson was staying at, and they really did get kicked out of the Ritz-Carlton due to his attire. They ended up at Senõr Frog's, and then later in Anderson's hotel room. According to Lee, Anderson's friends were actually very supportive of her going to see him once he got to Cancún, as he had clearly put a lot of effort into wooing her.
Though Pam & Tommy makes a point of showing the couples' drug use, Lee claimed that the magic returned at Senõr Frog's without the ecstasy, which made it even more special. He also said that they spent the next four days partying and making love, whereas the show curiously has the characters of Pam & Tommy abstain from sex until after their wedding. Rather than grabbing a ring off of his friend's finger, Lee pulled his own pinky ring off and impulsively proposed to Anderson, who immediately said yes. He had just been divorced from another famous blonde actress, Heather Locklear, in 1993, but he was certain he was in love. Interestingly, Lee's own parents had also been married within a few days of meeting - and they hadn't even spoken the same language.
Pam & Tommy Get Married - February 19, 1995
Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee were wed on a beach in Mexico in a scene much like the one reenacted in Pam & Tommy. Anderson wore a white bikini, and they ran into the water after saying their vows. Instead of wedding bands, they got each others' names tattooed around their fingers. Lee went even further by getting "Pamela" tattooed on his infamous penis, which Pam & Tommy gives a voice of its own. Like the wedding, the barrage of reporters and paparazzi that greet Pam and Tommy upon their arrival in Los Angeles was also very real.
Pam & Tommy's Honeymoon - Summer 1995
While Pam & Tommy puts the couples' honeymoon in April of 1995 and their first meeting as only two months prior, those dates are a bit off. Anderson and Lee took their Lake Mead honeymoon in the summer of 1995 - likely while Rand Gauthier was already working on his preparations to break into their Malibu home. The tape that Gauthier acquired in the robbery was filmed by Anderson and Lee during their time in Lake Mead. Though later sensationalized and commodified as porn, the tape was originally just a personal recording between two newlyweds that they did not even consider a sex tape, but rather a vacation video of sentimental value.
Pam Gets Pregnant - Mid-October 1995
Not long after Lee's 33rd birthday, he was ecstatic to learn that he and Pamela Anderson were going to have a baby. Months before, Anderson had suffered a miscarriage that had left her and Lee devastated. They were both very excited to have children, as are their counterparts in Pam & Tommy. Their first son would be the result of this second pregnancy, with Brandon Lee being born in 1996.
Rand Steals The Vault & Tape From Pam & Tommy's Home - October 1995
A few days before Halloween, Rand Gauthier finally executed the carefully planned heist he had been cooking up since Tommy Lee chased him out of his mansion with a shotgun after stiffing him for $20,000. Incredibly, the real-life robbery happened much as it did in Pam & Tommy, with Gauthier successfully disguising himself as Anderson and Lee's dog using a white rug. However, one notable difference would be that he did not take the time to go into Anderson and Lee's master bedroom to flip them off. Gauthier stole the couples' enormous safe with the hopes of raiding Lee's gun collection and Anderson's jewelry, but he found much more than that, including the fateful tape that would eventually kickstart the industry of internet video streaming.
Next: Every Song In Pam & Tommy
Pam & Tommy releases new episodes Wednesdays on Hulu.
