It seems Sebastian Stan didn’t quite read the room before tagging Pamela Anderson in a post celebrating his Pam & Tommy Emmy nomination that is now being branded “tone deaf” and “moronic.”
Although the acclaimed Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy has about a year’s worth of hype behind it , that doesn’t mean its release didn’t come with its own controversies.
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Chief among them was the apparent fact that Pamela Anderson was not consulted for the series and did not approve of it. Instead, she is purporting to tell the “real” story behind the incident that Pam & Tommy focuses on in an upcoming Netflix documentary.
With that context, many of her fans were suspicious of the miniseries’ intentions. So when star Sebastian Stan chose some interesting words to celebrate his nomination for playing Tommy Lee, those critics were less than impressed.
Rather than serving as a simple biopic for their relationship, ‘Pam & Tommy’ focuses on the fallout after Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape was leaked to the internet.
As Buzzfeed News reported, one of the main arguments made by the series is that while the tape was stolen and released without the consent of either party, the misogyny that Anderson experienced after its unveiling all but ruined her career while barely affecting Lee’s.
However, the miniseries’ detractors found this quite an ironic point in light of the response it has reportedly received from Anderson.
Anderson has said that the theft of the tape continues to make her feel “violated” to this day, which was not helped by the way ‘Pam & Tommy’ came to be made.
As an anonymous member of her social circle told Entertainment Tonight, “The upcoming Pam & Tomm y Hulu series has been very painful for Pamela Anderson and for anyone that loves her. It is shocking that this series is allowed to happen without her approval.”
Nonetheless, the series has garnered enough acclaim to net stars Sebastian Stan and Lily James Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress, while Seth Rogen secured a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series after playing the tape’s burglar, Rand Gauthier.
The series itself was also nominated in the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category.
And in an Instagram post celebrating the miniseries’ raft of nominations, Stan gave the impression that he missed all of this backlash.
Because while his post begins by acknowledging his co-star and the show’s cast and crew as one normally would, he rubbed commenters the wrong way by tagging Lee and especially Anderson in the post.
Just as much ire was directed at the following statement: ” #PAMANDTOMMY is about a crime that took place without Consent. It was a crime on privacy, a crime on love, a crime on family, and a crime that we were ALL a culprit of, as media and audience combined, and it’s now more timely than ever.”
Considering Anderson’s response to the show’s production, Stan’s post came off as “tone deaf” and “moronic” to those who had been following the story.
In one comment obtained by Buzzfeed News, one user said, “He has quite the balls to speak about consent, something Pamela did not give to this show.”
In the words of another, “Poor Pamela, he actually tagged her. Wtf,” which led another person to reply, “For real, that was actually a nasty thing to do.”
Others took umbrage at the idea that they bore any responsibility for the fallout from the sex tape, as they both hadn’t seen it and weren’t starring in a miniseries that could reignite public interest in seeking the tape out.
Neither Stan nor Anderson have offered any further comment at the time of this writing.
h/t: Buzzfeed News
