After her move to
Los Angeles, Anderson bleached her brunette hair blonde and underwent breast augmentation. In 1991, she landed a minor role on the
United States hit television
sitcom,
Home Improvement (1991-1997). Having gained viewer attention, she landed the role of
C. J. Parker (1992-1997) on
Baywatch, and left
Home Improvement after its second season. Anderson was still modeling for
Outdoor Life and appearing on the cover of the magazine each year. Her role as C.J. Parker gave her more popularity and gained her attention from international viewers. She returned to
Baywatch for the 2003 reunion movie,
Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding. She also made appearances on
The Nanny as Fran's rival,
Heather Biblow.
In 1996, she appeared in a feature film,
Barb Wire, as a character known as Barbara Rose Kopetski, which was mistakenly thought by some to have been her real name. The movie, a thinly-veiled futuristic remake of
Casablanca, failed to achieve commercial success. During the filming of
Barb Wire, Anderson suffered a
miscarriage. In April 1997, she guest-hosted
Saturday Night Live. During the beginning of the show, Anderson said, "You know, if you're nervous on stage, you actually should be naked!" She then began a striptease. Her breasts, however, were covered by a small flesh-colored bra and she also wore a crotch patch that was also flesh colored (though they were still blurred out for the sake of the joke). The segment became fodder for late-night comedians for the following weeks. She also appeared on one of two covers for the September issue of
Playboy; the other cover pictured
Jenny McCarthy.
In September 1998, Anderson starred in her produced series
V.I.P. It was very poorly received and a critical bomb. However, with many people tuning in just to see Pamela Anderson, the show lasted four seasons before being canceled in 2002. Anderson stated that she needed to dedicate her time to raising her children, but many believed that she was retiring.
In March 2001, Christine Evelyn Roth was arrested while sleeping in a guest room of Anderson's home. She was only charged with the
misdemeanor of
trespassing and not the more serious crime of
stalking. Roth pleaded guilty to the charge of trespassing and was deported to her home country, France. In 2004, Anderson returned to the spotlight. In May, she appeared naked on the cover of
Playboy magazine. It was the first time she had appeared naked on any magazine cover. Later, she posed naked for
Stuff and
GQ magazines. Many noticed that her breast size was larger than her pictorials from 2003.
Anderson became a
naturalized citizen of the
United States on
May 12,
2004, while retaining her Canadian citizenship, for the purpose of sponsoring her parents (or at least her mother) for a
green card. She has lived in Southern
California since 1989. Anderson has often spoken revealingly about her private life. On a visit to the
David Letterman show in 2004, she said she had not been dating for some time, and when Letterman asked her how she was coping, she responded, "There's not a square corner left anywhere in my house!" Letterman left that comment unanswered while the audience hooted.
In 2004, Pamela Anderson released the book
Star, co-written by author Eric Shaw Quinn, in which she describes a young
teenager doing different things in order to reach fame. After this, she began touring the United States, signing
autographs for fans at
Wal-Mart stores nationwide. Her second book, the sequel
Star Struck, released in 2005, is a thinly veiled look at her life with
Tommy Lee and the travails of
celebrity life.
In January 2005, Anderson confessed that she had new breast implants, claiming not to feel like herself without them. Anderson also claimed that the new breast implants were bigger than her old implants.
In April 2005, Anderson starred in a new
FOX sitcom Stacked as Skyler Dayton, a party girl (with implants), who goes to work at a bookstore.
Stacked was canceled on
May 18,
2006, after two seasons, although some episodes had not been aired on the network. On
August 14,
Comedy Central created the
Roast of Pamela Anderson to honor the sex symbol for the past decade. During her final speech at the Roast, Pamela referred to her breasts as "Pancho and Lefty".
In December 2005,
NBC cut off a video of Anderson pole dancing topless on
Elton John's "The Red Piano."
NBC said that the footage was inappropriate for primetime. The video was shown on huge screens during the event, while John was playing a song. Anderson was topless, but stars were painted on her breasts. In March 2006, it was announced that Anderson would receive a star on
Canada's Walk of Fame thanks to her many years as a model and actress. She is only the second model to receive a star. In April 2006, Anderson hosted Canada's
Juno Awards, becoming the first non-singer and model to do so.
Anderson was repeatedly referenced in the 2006 comedy film
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan as the
title character seeks to kidnap and marry her. Anderson appears in person at the end of the film confronted by Borat in a staged botched abduction. She has subsequently began filming a comedy,
Blonde and Blonder.
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