Big stars and big hair make the Pam & Tommy trailer an unofficial American Crime Story

I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie turns Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Nick Offerman, and Seth Rogen into a motley crew that changed the internet

By Matt Schimkowitz | January 5, 2022 | 10:35pm

TV News American Crime Story

Big stars and big hair make the Pam & Tommy trailer an unofficial American Crime Story

Photo: Erin Simkin/Hulu

If nothing else, Pam & Tommy deserved to be made because of its fantastic tagline: “The greatest love story ever sold.” Luckily, the new trailer makes the upcoming Hulu series look pretty fun, too. I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie proved his worth with his 2017 Oscar nominee. His style may be “diet-Scorsese,” as The A.V. Club described Gillespie’s work, but it’s still enough to leave one mostly satiated.

And the new trailer for Pam & Tommy goes all-in on Gillespie’s American Crime Story aesthetic, bringing in big stars, putting them in big wigs, and sensationalizing the not-so-distant past.

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Pam & Tommy tells the ill-fated love affair between model and TV star Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee (played by Lily James and Sebastian Stan). Their massive fame, bolstered by Anderson’s success on the lifeguard drama Baywatch, exploded after a home safe containing a very personal videotape was stolen.

Here’s the full synopsis:

Set in the Wild West early days of the Internet, Pam & Tommy is based on the incredible true story of the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape. Stolen from the couple’s home by a disgruntled contractor (Seth Rogen), the video went from underground bootleg-VHS curiosity to full-blown global sensation when it hit the Web in 1997. A love story, crime caper and cautionary tale rolled into one, the eight-part original limited series explores the intersection of privacy, technology and celebrity, tracing the origins of our current Reality TV Era to a stolen tape seen by millions but meant to have an audience of just two.

In addition to Gillespie, Pam & Tommy comes to us from showrunners D.V. DeVincentis, a producer and writer for American Crime Story, and former Onion editor-in-chief Robert Siegel. The other directors include more names from the Ryan Murphy school of ’90s nonfiction, Gwyneth Horder-Payton (American Crime Story, Pose, Feud) as well as Hannah Fidell, who created A Teacher.

All in all, Pam & Tommy looks like a blast, a show that looks to illuminate the overt sexism of the scandal. The first three episodes premiere on Hulu on February 2.