Pamela Anderson is clarifying her recent remarks about Tim Allen just days after she alleged the comedian exposed himself to her on the set of “Home Improvement.”
On Sunday, Variety published an excerpt from Anderson’s forthcoming memoir, “Love, Pamela,” in which Anderson said Allen had flashed her during her first day of filming the popular sitcom in 1991.
The “Baywatch” actor further addressed the situation on Thursday, telling Entertainment Tonight that Allen “had no bad intentions” and that it’s his job as a comedian “to cross the line.”
“I doubt anyone would try that post #MeToo,” Anderson told Entertainment Tonight over text. “It’s a new world.”
Allen refuted Anderson’s account on Monday in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times, asserting that “it never happened.”
“I would never do such a thing,” said Allen, who starred in “Home Improvement” as “Tool Time” host and handyman Tim Taylor.
Anderson played “Tool Time girl” Lisa in the show’s first two seasons before leaving the show to work on “Baywatch.” She was 23 and Allen was 37 at the time of the alleged incident.
Anderson’s comments Thursday build on her previous skepticism of the #MeToo movement.
“There’s good things about it, but as I always say, ‘Action is stronger than a hashtag,’’ she told The Times in a 2019 interview. “Feminism, for 50 years, gave us a voice. … We’re allowed to be able to talk about the abuse in our lives and we have to take action in the moment. We also have to be careful about destroying lives … I have two boys, so I’m always worried about paralyzing them too.”
She went on to call herself a feminist but added that she’s “not really a fan” of third-wave feminism.
In Anderson’s highly anticipated memoir, which comes out Tuesday, she wrote that she had been walking out of her dressing room when Allen exposed himself.
“He opened his robe and flashed me quickly — completely naked underneath,” she wrote. “He said it was only fair because he had seen me naked. Now we’re even. I laughed uncomfortably.”
As Anderson’s allegations against Allen swirled online this week, an old clip from 1992 resurfaced and showed Allen flashing his “Home Improvement” co-star Patricia Richardson while filming the ABC sitcom.
The video is part of a blooper reel from an episode of the second season of “Home Improvement.” During the scene, which was filmed in front of a studio audience, Allen walks on set wearing a kilt. Richardson, who played his wife, Jill Taylor, says she thinks it looks sexy on him but “wished it was shorter.” The quip drew laughs from the audience.
At that point, Allen lifts the kilt toward Richardson, who drops her jaw in shock as the audience’s laughter grows. The camera angle doesn’t show exactly what Richardson saw.
Richardson told TMZ this week that she was genuinely shocked by the improvised moment but that “he was well dressed under there.”
“I was just shocked that he lifted the kilt, not by a man in boxer shorts,” she said.
