Among Borat’s many very nice services is his habit of revealing grotesque misogyny, as Pamela Anderson found out firsthand when Sacha Baron Cohen’s most famous character saved her from moving in with Kid Rock.
As Anderson reveals in her new memoir Love, Pamela (via Rolling Stone), she and Kid Rock, aka Robert Ritchie, were ready to enter a serious phase of their relationship — that is, until they witnessed an advance screening of the 2006 film Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
“We were about to move in, until the premiere of Borat,” she wrote. “The screening at Ron and Kelly Meyer’s house didn’t go well. Lots of important industry people were there — Steven Spielberg, Rick Rubin, Laird Hamilton and his wife, Gabby Reece. I didn’t tell Bob I was in the movie, because I wanted to surprise him.”
In the film, Borat falls in love with Anderson after seeing an episode of Baywatch and sets out to meet and/or kidnap her. His journey is interrupted when he meets a group of frat boys who, learning of his obsession, show him the infamous stolen sex tape with Tommy Lee.
As Anderson recalled, “I forgot about the part in the film that referenced the ‘sex tape.’ Bob stormed out, calling me a whore and worse. He was embarrassed, and his reaction was not thought through… After I chased Bob to his car, he peeled out, leaving me there alone. I turned back and apologized, then asked if anyone could give me a ride home. When I walked in, Bob was smashing a photo on the wall. He said he was sick of waking up to a picture of me and David LaChapelle every day. But it wasn’t me and David — it was Marilyn Monroe and Bert Stern.”
“We broke up,” she said. “I didn’t stay in touch with Bob.”
Since then, Borat gave Rudy Giuliani a space to humiliate himself in the 2020 sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and at the recent Kennedy Center Honors, Cohen revived the character to roast Kanye West and Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Anderson’s new Netflix documentary Pamela, a love story is out today, January 31st, as is her new memoir Love, Pamela. In it, Anderson also alleges that Tim Allen flashed her on the set of Home Improvement, an incident he denies.
