On this episode of the Bingeworthy podcast, The Playlist's TV podcast dedicated to what we watch and how we watch it in the accelerated streaming age, we speak to multi-hyphenate super thread Lake Bell, an actress, filmmaker, writer, producer, and voice actress, who recently was tapped to directed some crucial episodes of Hulu's series, "Pam & Tommy," about the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee '90s sex tape scandal. While Bell is known for her acting career first and foremost, she turned to creating her own stories with 2013's acclaimed Sundance film, "In A World," that she starred in, wrote and directed. She followed that up with 2017's "I Do... Until I Don't" comedic treatise on marriage and then co-created the ABC comedy "Bless This Mess" with Elizabeth Meriwether, in which she starred in, and directed and wrote on.

Her latest directing gig is joining Craig Gillespie and a talented crew of filmmakers on "Pam & Tommy." Chronicling the marriage between actress Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, played by Lily James and Sebastian Stan, the Hulu series tells the tale of how their home-movie sex tape was stolen from their home, and eventually screened and sold to the whole world, a massive invasion of privacy that strained their marriage and arguably tanked Anderson's career. Moreover, this personal, private tape which they had no intent on selling, let alone showing to anyone was a massive violation and invasion of privacy, that shamed, humiliated, and made Anderson the butt of cultural jokes for years.

While "Pam & Tommy" starts out rock n' roll, funny and vibrant, it eventually gets pretty dark when the sex tape is stolen-- an act of twisted "karma"-- as Anderson is shocked and emotionally devastated about this violating exposure.

Bell is there to direct the key fourth, turning-point episode "The Master Beta," right after the tape is stolen and begins to leak and spread, illustrating the emotional panic the couple feels when they learn it was stolen (Seth Rogen plays a disgruntled carpenter who took a safe that had the tape). She also returns for the penultimate and seventh episode, which airs March 2 on Hulu and further gets into the darker turmoil of this story and how Anderson is put through the wringer as she is exposed to the world.

While "Pam & Tommy" is entertaining, it's also the story of reclaiming Pamela Anderson's narrative and reminding the world she was a real victim in this story, caught between the warring of two stupid men (her husband and the carpenter he refused to pay), grifters trying to make a buck (Penthouse, the porn industry, the burgeoning online industry), lawyers and judges who make neanderthal-like decisions against her privacy and agency, and a culture all too willing to not see her side of the story-- a clear violation of her privacy--and just cruelly mock her.

This is really the meat of what Bell digs into in this podcast, telling Anderson's story, trying to reclaim her narrative, and digging deep into still-relevant topics of privacy, agency, and lack thereof, violation, and the horror of feeling helpless. Bell herself was a victim of a 2014 cyberattack that exposed private photos of herself and dozens of other celebrities and she speaks about that violation of her own privacy for the first time as well, candidly talking about that humiliation and how it helped her relate to Anderson's story.

Bell also speaks about her solo directing career (at least two new projects on the way, that she wrote), working for Marvel as the new Black Widow on Disney+'s "What If?,? voicing Poison Ivy on the animated "Harley Quinn" and much more.

Indie Beat - Julie Sokolow

The Playlist Podcast NetworkBy The PlaylistJan 25, 2020