Anderson's second novel turns up the sexBy Carol Memmott, USA TODAY Tue Aug 23, 7:15 AM ET
Pamela Anderson is wearing boots - just boots - in the photo that stretches across front and back covers of Star Struck, her latest novel, out Tuesday.
It's the first clue that her admittedly semi-autobiographical second novel (Atria, $24) is more about sex than it is about plot. The book is so racy that after Anderson's mother read it, "she told me I should be spanked."
Last year, Anderson's first novel, Star, was a surprising success. It chronicled the early life of Star Wood Leigh, a blond and bosomy cosmetologist who is "discovered," photographed for a Playboy-like magazine and winds up on a Baywatch-like TV show.
The former Baywatch babe, 38, won't be making the bookstore rounds for Star Struck, however. She's busy shooting her Fox sitcom, Stacked, which returns in new episodes in January. The show averaged a modest 7 million viewers last season, and this month Comedy Central's Roast of Pamela Anderson drew 4.3 million, a strong showing for cable.
Anderson also has been making headlines for her relationship with ex-husband Tommy Lee; she has acknowledged she let rumors of a reunion fly to help publicize his reality show, Tommy Lee Goes to College (NBC, Tuesdays, 9 p.m. ET/PT). "We get along fine," she says. "There's no new news."
But Lee, father of her sons Brandon, 9, and Dylan, 7, is a factor in Anderson's fiction. Jimi, Star's rock-star husband, is based in part on the Motley Crue drummer. "Jimi is based on a compilation of people, but definitely Tommy is part of the inspiration, for sure."
The stories, she says, were "inspired by my life" - to the point that separating truth from fiction can be difficult. "But you wouldn't want me to go page by page and tell you what's true and what's not. It would be confusing. I've even confused myself. The charm of the book is really not knowing."
Anderson says she and co-writer Eric Shaw Quinn wrote Star and Star Struck at the same time.
But she thought Star Struck was too true-to-life, so publication was delayed while she rewrote parts of it. "I decided I needed to fictionalize it more, maybe kill a few people, throw in a little of this and a little of that. It just started feeling a bit too familiar to me."
As to how Star Struck continues the story, she says, "Star was more like a Cinderella story, but this one gets edgier and more erotic. That's kind of what happened in my life at the time."
Sharing such intimacies was tougher than she imagined, she says.
"You feel brave when you're writing it, but then the whole world sees it, and it's like, 'Uh-oh.' "
She has no plans to become a full-time writer. "These books are just extra fun things I get to do on the side. I'm proud of them, and they were fun to do, but I can't wait to focus on my TV show."
But she does hope the new book sells as well as Star. "Hopefully, the people who enjoyed the first book will enjoy the second book. And it's definitely racier. It's PG-18."
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