The comical story of how Pamela Anderson was accidentally discovered
David Bowie once said, “I’m an instant star. Just add water and stir.” But Pamela Anderson didn’t even need that. Before she took her first sip, she was already hitting headlines. Born to Barry the furnace repairer and Carol the waiter, her first column inches were in celebration of being the first baby born in Canada’s centennial year.
Since then, some other ideas have come in, as she once said: “People say I’m the ultimate California girl, which is funny being that I’m Canadian.” There have been many misconceptions espoused in her life and times, but from the get-go, she was a star. However, she has also always been wary of the trappings of public exposure. As she recently said of social media revolution: “It’s a dead-end addiction to fame.”
It might actually come as a surprise, but much of the fame in Anderson’s life (bar a notice blip), has arrived inadvertently. Following her accidental famous birth, the same odd pattern of fateful timing would befall her once more. At 22, Anderson moved to Vancouver. As an avid sports fan, she decided to enjoy a Canadian Football League game, someone has to.
She was a regular. But this time, the camera just happened to pan to her chestly endowed physique in the crowd. She was sporting a tight Labatt’s beer jersey. Folks downed their drinks in celebration of this sight. Lightbulbs appeared above heads at Labatt’s beer HQ. The local brewery quickly approached her to take up the role as a sort of company mascot. She quickly became the face, and body, of Labatt’s. Sales rocketed.
Since then, she has been using her figure as a way to bring about positive changes beyond the field of the local beer industry. As she proclaims: “The true meaning of feminism is this: to use your strong womanly image to gain strong results in society.” As it happens, Playboy was busily promoting a similar message at the time.
Naturally, being the face of Labatt was bound to be a steppingstone to bigger things, and they soon came her way as she left Canada behind and headed for Hollywood. Therein, in October 1989, she found herself within the centrefold pages of Playboy Magazine. It is a mark of her ability to stand out and the determined hard work behind that feat that she is now almost the definitive face of the publication.
She became Playmate of the Year and found herself thrust into the spotlight for real. Hollywood offers soon came her way, and he was determined to use this accidental fame to speak out. “Baywatch was a turning point for me,” she once recalled. “Reluctantly famous (in over 150 countries), I tried to make sense of my place on Earth. I started to realise, while being interviewed endlessly about silly things, that I had a voice!”
Now, 30 years on from her first appearance as CJ – casually playing a trombone after kayaking up a rapid river – she is fighting political causes and openly supporting Julian Assange. And it all could have been very different if it hadn’t been for one keen-eyed camera operator at a football game.
You can check out her hilarious TV debut below.
