Odd-Jobber Says He Was Forced by Mob to Shoulder Blame for Pamela Anderson 'Sex Tape' Theft
© AP Photo / THOMAS SAMSON
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Disney+ streaming platform premiered the series, Pam & Tommy, on 2 February in the UK, with the biographical drama depicting the 1995 marriage between Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee following the release of their unauthorised X-rated sex tape, recorded privately during their honeymoon.
Rand Gauthier, the electrician portrayed stealing Pamela Anderson and her then-husband Tommy Lee’s sex tape in a new Disney+ series, Pam & Tommy, has claimed he was forced by mobsters to take the fall for the 1995 theft.
The much-feared American-Italian criminal Gambino clan were purportedly behind the X-rated footage going viral, according to Rand’s interview in The Sun.
The Greatest Love Story Ever Sold.
— Disney+ UK (@DisneyPlusUK) January 5, 2022
Pam & Tommy, an Original series, starring Lily James, Sebastian Stan, and Seth Rogen, 18+, premieres February 2 on Disney+. pic.twitter.com/EOkPhguQte
Back in 2014, in an interview for Rolling Stone, on which the series is based, Rand, who did a stint as a male porn star, revealed that he had sneaked into the mansion where the celebrity couple lived and stole a Browning safe in revenge for unpaid work on the property.
The tape showing the then-newlyweds Baywatch star Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Lee having sex was inside.
However, The Sun cited Rand as saying:
“One day, someone — and it was one person — came into our editing bay and handed the tape to me. I handed the tape to Milton and it went into the machine. My reaction was, ‘Oh my God’. A lot of things went through my head like, ‘How did they get hold of this?’ That person was not one of the crew who worked on the house, but I’ll never give them up because they are still alive and I gave them my word.”
The ex-handyman, 63, insists that after being made “an offer he could not refuse”, he was forced to lie for years by the Gambino family, involved in racketeering, extortion, drug trafficking, prostitution and pornography.
“After the sex tape was stolen, I told a capo (boss) with the Gambino crime family, ‘Everyone thinks this is me, I don’t want it on my shoulders’… He told me, ‘We want it on your shoulders’… I am not in a position to argue with the Gambino family. I am not a thug. So the whole thing fell on me. But the truth is I had nothing to do with stealing the sex tape and I didn’t make one cent from it,” Rand Gauthier is quoted as saying.
Disgruntled Odd-Jobber
Rand, according to the 2014 Rolling Stone story, had been a porn star of sorts, also working as an electrician, and was hired to work on Tommy Lee’s home renovation in 1995.
Tommy Lee married actress Pamela Anderson on a Cancun beach, February 19, 1995. pic.twitter.com/B41LE35nEs
— Classic Rock In Pics (@crockpics) February 19, 2022
He was fired months later by Lee, who purportedly complained about “shoddy work” and refused to pay them.
The disgruntled handyman claimed during the interview that when he returned to the property to collect his tools, Tommy Lee pointed a gun at him.
“He said, ‘What are you doing — get off my property’. He had a gun, so what was I supposed to do?”
He added that the reason they had all been fired was that the drummer had “bought a new Ferrari, a new speedboat and this expensive house and he ran out of money.” According to Gauthier's 2014 account of events, he stole up to the couple’s bedroom, stole the safe and sawed it open. Then he took it to a porn studio in North Hollywood, making copies with the help of his partner, before destroying the original. They tried to find a distributor, but only got funding from a man with connections to a New York mob family, wrote the outlet.
Actress Pamela Anderson, May 20, 1995 file photo
© AP Photo / Remy de la Mauviniere
After the tapes got out, Gauthier claimed he was accosted by a biker gang, purportedly enlisted by Lee to hunt down the distributors. Rand Gauthier insisted he spent over a year in hiding, and in 1997 he and his partner were forced to close down their operation without yet paying their mob-linked backer.
Gauthier was forced to working as a collector for the mob to pay back his part of the debt, stated the story. The ex-handyman, cited by The Sun, says he apologised to Pamela Anderson for his role in the tape being distributed.
“I’m genuinely sorry if Pam was traumatised by what -happened. I know it caused her a great deal of upset because the footage was very personal. Do I feel guilty about my small part? Yes. I wish I had nothing to do with it. The sex tape has changed my life and it almost led to me being killed,” he said.
Anderson, 54, who divorced Lee in 1998 and is now a mother-of-two, is said to have been devastated when the highly personal footage first went viral on the internet.
February 24, 1998
— The Rock Experience with Mike Brunn (@mike_brunn) February 24, 2022
Tommy Lee is arrested for assaulting his wife Pamela Anderson. Lee assaulted her as she held their 2 month old son. He was charged with spousal abuse, child abuse & possession of a firearm. He did jail time as well as community service. Pamela filed for divorce pic.twitter.com/ZKgQT1YVNE
According to cited friends, she has refused to watch the trailer for Pam & Tommy or advise 32-year-old London-based actress Lily James on the role. Rand Gauthier never faced jail time for his actions at a time when internet crime was still a novel concept.
