Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson sex tape is one of the most popular leaked videos of all time. However, nothing is known about the man who stole it from them and shared it with the rest of the world: Rand Gauthier.
Rand Gauthier, an electrician and occasional porn star, didn’t intend to take the home video. After the famous couple declined to pay him, he planned to break into their safe.
He discovered a little black tape inside that had about an hour of explicit material.
The events that followed would alter the lives of Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee, and Rand Gauthier as well as the entire world.
Rand Gauthier
His father, successful actor Dick Gautier, had roles in TV’s Get Smart and the Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie. Even more so, Gauthier grew up next door to Dick Van Dyke.
But Gauthier soon realized he was going in a different direction. Because he felt his father had never “truly believed in me,” he changed his last name from Gautier to Gauthier.
By the 1990s, Gauthier was juggling several jobs. He occasionally appeared in pornographic movies, although he mostly only observed or assisted in building the sets. He had begun doing contracting work, including for Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson.
After a brief, whirlwind affair, Lee, the drummer for Mötley Crüe, and Anderson, the star of Baywatch, startled the world by getting married in 1995. They had already begun a massive, dramatic restoration project on their shared Malibu property when Gauthier entered their life.
However, the couple balked when it came time to give Rand Gauthier the $20,000 they owed him for electrical work. Furthermore, when Gauthier went back to the house to get his tools, Lee threatened him with a firearm.
Gauthier admitted to Rolling Stone in 2014 that “I was never really that popular with people.” But I had never been threatened with a gun. It caused my head to spin.
Gauthier got to work planning his retaliation. He was aware that the couple kept valuables in a safe. Gauthier believed he could get away with taking it because of his substantial work on the property.
Rand Gauthier, however, was unaware of the contents of the safe.
Releasing The Sex Tape
1995’s Halloween was just around the corner when Rand Gauthier executed his plan. Around three in the morning, Gauthier sneaked into Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson’s house and made a beeline for the safe while wearing a white yak fur rug over his head in an attempt to be mistaken for a dog on security film.
The safe was “as big as a fridge and weighed 500 pounds when empty,” Lee later claimed. But according to Gauthier, he was able to take it down from the wall, place it on a dolly, and manually lift it into his vehicle. He made his escape and then broke in with a saw.
He had hoped that Lee and Anderson would stuff the safe with pricey watches and jewels. However, they had also left a little, black, Hi8 camcorder cassette behind. When Gauthier carried it to the pornography studio where he worked, he suddenly realized what was inside.
Danger aside — not to mention the morality of the issue — Rand Gauthier began planning to sell the tape. He teamed up with his friend, porn studio owner Milton Ingley, and tried to find a distributor. But no one wanted to touch it — no one, that is, except the mob.
After all, the tape was stolen, and neither Lee nor Anderson had given their consent for it to be shared. But Colombo crime family member Louis “Butchie” Peraino of New York City agreed to provide Gauthier and Ingley the capital so they could distribute the tape themselves. They used the new World Wide Web for this.
In 1995, there were only 25 million Internet users in the United States. Gauthier and Ingley created websites like pamsex.com, pamlee.com, and pamsextape.com.
The tape was available for purchase online for $59.95, and customers could have it delivered covertly to their house. However, Rand Gauthier’s scheme to sell the sex tape started to fall apart as he daydreamed of using the riches to purchase a castle in Spain.
Gauthier’s Scheme Fell Apart
As 1995 turned into 1996, two events happened nearly simultaneously: Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson discovered their safe was missing, and anyone having a copy of the video learned they could reproduce it themselves and sell it.
“My heart stopped for a second when I realized it had been stolen,” Lee recalled. “We knew the tape was in the safe but we never thought that the thieves were after anything but guns and money.”
Rand Gauthier suddenly faced danger on several fronts. After hiring a private detective, Lee allegedly enlisted the Hells Angels to harass Gauthier and Ingley to try to get the tape back. The bikers started showing up at the porn studio where they worked, waving guns and shouting threats.
“You tell that motherfucker we’re going to come back and blow somebody’s balls off unless that tape gets puts back,” one of the bikers threatened.
Their lives changed after the leak
Even worse, Gauthier’s hopes for wealth disappeared almost immediately. Copies of Lee and Anderson’s sex tape were being sold on imitation websites as he fled, plagued by panic and insomnia. His earnings plummeted. And Peraino continued to anticipate receiving his loan back.
Even though Rand Gauthier was named in a $10 million civil case Lee and Anderson filed against anyone they suspected of possessing the tape, things quickly got out of hand. The tape was shown continuously for subscribers of the website “Club Love” in November 1997. And in 1998, the tape was easily accessible at an adult video shop.
A colleague said that Rand Gauthier’s eyes would well up with tears whenever he heard about the tape.
Life After
One of the most well-known leaked home films of all time continues to be the Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson sex tape. But Rand Gauthier has an unexpected perspective on it.
“They’re in love and a couple and they’re just having fun with each other, and I think that’s great,” Gauthier said. “I’m jealous. I wish I had something like that.”
Following the discovery of the sex tape, life was altered for all three. Over the years, Lee and Anderson divorced, remarried, and divorced again, flitting in and out of the spotlight over the years. After leaving Los Angeles and the porn industry, Rand Gauthier has since enjoyed a much quieter life.