From FTAV, May 10:
Jemima Kelly
Alphaville meets Pamela Anderson, the original influencer
Last month, we interviewed former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis for Alphachat, and asked him about his new transnational “Democracy in Europe Movement” or “DiEM25″. During our research for the interview, we’d come across various pictures of Yanis schmoozing with other movers and shakers -- you know, the usual crowd: Noam Chomsky, Benoît Hamon, Ken Loach, Pamela Anderson...
Ah ha. Pamela -- Baywatch legend -- Anderson.
Suffice to say, we were intrigued by Anderson’s involvement. Yanis had gushed that she was “absolutely disarming and charming and wonderful”. And, having subsquently gathered that she was very publicly supporting Julian Assange, we were keen to understand how the politicisation of Pamela Anderson -- the world's original online influencer -- had actually taken place.
Back in the 90s, of course, Anderson's stand-out performance in what as the time the most-watched TV series in the world, Baywatch -- with an estimated 1.1bn weekly viewers in 148 countries -- established her as one of the most recognisable women in the world.
But what we possibly forget these days is that Anderson's profile was also elevated by expansive internet propagation, the sort of publicity more closely associated with social media stars today.
In that regard it's worth remembering that long before Kim Kardashian's sex tape ever went viral, Pamela Anderson's equivalent had already long ago broken the internet. (Pammy’s, though, was stolen from her home, while Kimmy’s was reportedly leaked not so accidentally.)
More pertinently still, before Kimmy was the most searched-for person on the internet in 2011, for a year, Pammy was the most searched-for person for a decade, between 1995 and 2005, as the internet took off.
(Relatedly, while Kimmy achieved the record for the most-liked Instagram picture ever -- now sadly displaced by an egg -- Pammy still holds the record for the most Playboy covers ever.)
Unsurprisingly, when you look at who's influencing the influencers, often times it's Anderson herself.
Not only did Kim Kardashian dress up as her last Halloween, when Anderson -- a longtime animal-rights activist -- sent her a faux mink coat and a letter asking her to give up wearing it, Kim indeed gave up fur a few months later.
Actual influence.
Which is why when Anderson says she's looking to apply her influence to full-time activism, aka the promotion of political and social ideas more than brands, it's probably worth taking a closer look at how and why she's decided to get involved.
It was on that note that Anderson agreed to speak to us. At first, only by email (she said she could better express herself that way). But eventually -- providing we wouldn't ignore her carefully thought-out written replies, interspersed below -- by phone and face-to-face in her suite in a Mayfair hotel, in part justified by the fact the phone call had to be interrupted.
On Julian Assange
And so it was we inadvertently found ourselves speaking to Anderson the day before she was once again catapulted into global headlines, this time in connection to her close friendship with Julian Assange, when he was was arrested and dragged out of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. At the time we spoke, we had been oblivious to Assange's precarious state. But Anderson herself was already worrying about the risk of an “imminent expulsion”. Later, she told us:
To see him was so horrible. It was so sad not just because he looked the way he did — more emaciated since I’ve seen him, and a lot older, and scared -- but also because he hasn’t been out of his room for seven years and they just grabbed him and pulled him out and stuck him in a car. I can’t even imagine how he’s feeling right now in prison.... It’s difficult to see. He’s taking the heat for everybody and I wish people could be more sympathetic. But he knew what he was getting himself into. And he’s prepared for it.This week, she became the first person to visit Assange in Belmarsh prison. Anderson told us that she visited him every time she was in London, bringing him vegan food even though unlike her, Assange is not a vegan. “He felt like that was something exotic”. She liked the fact that he didn’t seem to judge her:
It’s so funny because when I went to go and speak to him he would talk to me about my family, my life, what’s going on in the world. He really wanted to know about how I was thinking. He’s not this narcissistic self-serving person that people say he is. He’s really curious about other people, really curious about how the world works, and through my eyes what do I see. He treated me as an equal. Me!She also told us about how she and Assange would sit in the embassy together watching videos of far-right YouTubers -- “young, spiky-haired guys” -- talking about how crazy the world had become. She would speak to Assange about bitcoin too, she said, because she has an adopted son who’s into it. But Assange, apparently, explained to her that blockchain was much more interesting than the cryptocurrency that WikiLeaks projected into the limelight when it chose to accept it as a funding currency for its operations in 2011.
Regular Alphaville readers know that we don’t buy the blockchain hype. And yeah, Assange is, let us say, a divisive figure. But Anderson doesn’t seem to mind if you don’t agree with her or her pals. She’s not into echo chambers:
I have a lot of really incredible friends... and not everybody I know agrees, which I really like. I love that there’s just so many people in my life with interesting perspectives, and points of view, and conversation. And then I get to go home to my soccer player. And not talk about politics... DiEM25 is something I’m really pouring my heart into and I’m learning every day. I can’t read enough books; I can’t read enough articles; I can’t meet enough people. I’m just really hungry for information, I’m really excited about what they’re doing.I like to do the unexpected. And I don’t really feel the pressure because I really have nothing to live up to.
Pamela Anderson, pictured by Carmelo Redondo in April 2019 in the South of France
...MOREOn the future of EuropePamela, who was born in Canada but is of Finnish, Russian and Romani descent, now lives in the South of France, splitting her between Marseille and Cassis. She goes out and lives with Adil Rami, who plays football for Marseille and the French national team, though she had moved to France before she met him and says she’s known for a long time that she would end up in these parts at this point in her life....
The comments are almost universally positive with many commenters almost gushing, something one does not see at the FT all that often.
Now my little story:
On the evening of Thursday May 16 I was at YouTube's site looking for a video, found it and glanced at the "Up next" sidebar and at the top of the list was this vid:
At the time I clicked through it had been viewed 24 times, obviously uploaded just minutes before being offered up for my viewing pleasure and edification.
Some hours later "FT Alphaville presents Vaudeville" was posted at the FT's Alphaville outpost by the un-bylined toilers known only to God; and to readers as FT Alphaville.
If interested see also April 10's "FT Vaudeville?".
I'm going to take a few minutes to think about recommendation engines.
And this:
— Pamela Anderson (@pamfoundation) May 17, 2019
