She was raised in a small town in British Columbia (even her birth made headlines--she was the first centennial baby born in the area), and claims she was something of a wild child (as a teenager, she would try to fool whoever might peek at her diary by writing "I'm going to be a virgin until I'm nineteen" throughout). She credits her eccentric grandfather for instilling in her a lifelong passion for what she calls her "New Age way of thinking"--a philosophy that includes "a fascination with mythology, fairy tales, crystals, meditation, and dream interpretation." Her life's ambition, according to her high school yearbook, was to be "a California beach bum."

Her first big break came out of the blue in 1989, while she was attending a professional football game in Vancouver. The cameraman focused in on her, and amplified her then less considerable--but still considerable--assets on a Jumbotron screen for all to see. Pamela happened to be wearing a Labatt's T-shirt, and she created such a sensation that Labatt's hired her to do commercials.

Playboy soon called, and her career was launched. Hollywood, TV roles, life on the beach, surgical enhancements (she learned that she was far more popular with a couple of sacks of silicone implanted in her chest)--all of these followed in quick succession. She appeared on Married . . . With Children (bimbo), Home Improvement (Lisa, the Tool Time Girl), and, of course, Baywatch (C.J., the Speedo girl), and she also revisited the cover of Playboy (she's appeared on the cover five times, more than any other woman). Pamela has never worried about being stereotyped as a "dumb blonde," because, she says, "then I have nothing to live up to. I can only surprise people."

Although Pamela's Barb Wire, the futuristic tale of a post-feminist action hero, tanked at the box office, pre-feminist Pamela claimed that she didn't care if she ever made another movie. For all her fame, she has always insisted that all she ever wanted to be was a wife and mother, and with that end in mind, she dated some of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors, including Dean "Superman" Cain, Sylvester Stallone, and Scott Baio (did we say "most eligible"?). She surprised friends and family when she married Tommy Lee, Mötley Crüe's much-tattooed drummer, after a whirlwind four-day courtship.

Though she was initially repulsed by Lee, and his habit of calling her forty times a day, she fell in love with him after he followed her down to Cancun. They were married on the beach--the groom wore swimming trunks, the bride a white thong bikini. The relationship has been nothing if not bizarre from the very beginning. The couple suspended a swing over Tommy's piano in the living room of their Los Angeles home, so that Pamela could swing back and forth over his head--naked--while he composed music.

Tommy didn't buy Pamela a diamond wedding ring because she believes that big diamonds are really about the size of a man's insecurity over his "little thing." Instead, she had her husband's name tattooed on her finger. He had hers tattooed on his penis, among other places.

The couple has been tabloid fodder since the day they married. Polaroids that they took while sharing a private moment--with Pamela, shall we say, servicing her husband--were stolen from their house and published in French Penthouse.

The couple celebrated the birth of their first child, a son named Brandon, in 1996. Within three months of his birth, the tyke had scored his first straight dramatic role (and an accompanying $60,000 salary) as an abandoned infant on Baywatch.

Various rumors began circulating that Tommy was too controlling, that he kept her in her trailer during the filming of Barb Wire, continually having sex, holding up production (she admits to the sex, but not to delaying production), and that he has been physically abusive. Initially, Pamela denied the accusations, but it came as no surprise to anyone when she filed for divorce just shy of their two-year anniversary. The couple has since reunited.

These recent marital tribulations have had one positive attendant effect: Pamela has reconsidered her career goals and announced her decision to leave Baywatch in order to focus her attention on films and other "high-quality projects."