Pamela Anderson’s sex tape with Tommy Lee cost her a lot—and put her under a lot of scrutiny.
But neither she nor the Mötley Crüe drummer ever saw a major payday from it. The upcoming docuseries Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes, premiering Sept. 8 at 10 p.m., revisits the 1997 scandal, featuring insight from Nicole Eggert, Traci Bingham and more. One hot topic stemming from the controversy? Whether the pair themselves profited from sales of the footage.
“I know firsthand that Pam and Tommy made not one dime off that video,” Cort St. George says in the series. “They didn’t demand any money. I know that they turned down money.”
Anderson and Lee had filmed themselves having sex during their 1995 honeymoon, months before it was stolen from their Los Angeles home. However, it wasn’t until 1997 that now-defunct Internet Entertainment Group, who had obtained the video, began selling copies online.
The former couple—who divorced in 1998—filed a copyright lawsuit and won their case on appeal in 2002, with the judge granting the Baywatch alum and the musician $740,000 apiece in a default judgment against IEG, whose reps never showed up in court to defend the company, per Entertainment Weekly.