The True Story of Rand Gauthier, Who Stole and Sold the Sex Tape in Hulu’s Pam and Tommy

When Rand Gauthier (played by Seth Rogen in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy) shopped the video around Hollywood—a recording he stole from former employer (and Mötley Crüe drummer) Tommy Lee’s home, showing Lee and newlywed Pamela Anderson having sex—he wanted to destroy Lee.

Instead, the opposite seemed to occur. Lee appeared unfazed by the leak, which not only boosted his rock star celebrity status but also gave him fodder and publicity for future material, including a memoir. “I made his career, is what happened,” Gauthier told Rolling Stone almost 20 years later.

At the time of that interview in 2014, Gauthier was still an electrician, and he was growing marijuana out of his California garage. He was 57.

That story, retold in Pam & Tommy, is real. But while the sequence of events remains mostly accurate (or at least, in keeping with the accounts from Gauthier, who likely exaggerated some details of the Lee heist), its participants are a bit different.

As in the Rolling Stone article upon which the series is based, Gauthier—and not the eponymous duo of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson—takes center stage; he is the tale’s central figure, its instigator.

Here’s the real story of the man who stole the tape.

Who is Rand Gauthier?

Erica Parise

According to the Rolling Stone piece cited above, Gauthier grew up in L.A., where his mother was a Jehovah’s Witness. He developed an interest in cults and conspiracies.

Before he met Tommy Lee, Gauthier was a porn star—of sorts. He had dated a porn actress in the 1980s and later joined her on camera using the name “Austin Moore.” Gauthier performed in over 70 adult videos into the ’90s. He even married his costar, divorced, and then began dating more actresses.

Gauthier also worked as an electrician, and was hired to work on Lee’s home renovation. He worked for three months before he was fired.

Lee owed Gauthier $20,000 for the work, but he was fed up with Lee and Anderson and just wanted out. When he and the general contractor came back to collect their tools, the Rolling Stone story says, Lee pointed a shotgun at Gauthier and said, “get the fuck off my property.”

Gauthier proceeded to scope out the Lee residence, waiting for revenge. He told reporter Amanda Chicago Lewis that he used a white fur rug to disguise himself as the couple’s dog, and so elude security cameras.

Lewis describes Gauthier:

“Here was a guy who, on his 18th birthday, lost his virginity to a Vegas hooker. Here was an L.A. boy through and through, struggling to dissociate himself from his famous father, who starred in the original Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway and was Hymie the Robot on the Sixties sitcom Get Smart. By the Nineties, Gauthier had gleaming, tanned muscles, broad shoulders, an eager, trusting smile and a voice that’s equal parts surfer and Ernie from Sesame Street. Most people dismiss him as a doofus, a conspiracy theorist who likes fast, powerful cars and dating porn stars. He even did some scenes himself, and spent his time hanging around an adult-film studio, building sets and chatting up starlets. A studio troll, they called him.”

Gauthier claims he went up to the couple’s bedroom before stealing the safe. He sawed it open after he left the property.

Gauthier was then working at a porn studio in North Hollywood. He took the tape there first where he and a partner made copies before destroying the original. They then went out looking for a distributor but were rebuked multiple times for not having signed releases from Lee and Anderson.

Getty/Hulu

The two eventually got funding from a man with connections to a New York mob family. They would advertise online and sell and ship the tapes to buyers. Gauthier was managing shipments while those around him were selling copies of the tapes themselves for quick cash.

The tapes got out and Gauthier was soon accosted by a biker gang who had been hunting down the distributors. (It was rumored that Lee used connections with the Hell’s Angeles to find Gauthier.)

By now, the tape was everywhere, and Gauthier was so paranoid of retribution he spent over a year in hiding with friends. Other sites were already selling the tape themselves, and in 1997 Gauthier and his partner were forced to close the site, still not having paid their mob-linked backer. Gauthier ended up working as a collector for the mob to pay back his share of the debt.

Lily James (right) as Pamela Anderson

As the tape circulated beyond everyone’s control, Gauthier focused on his electrical work and distanced himself from friends who believed he was hoarding massive profits. He later moved up the coast to get away from it all.

When asked about the tape in 2014, he said he sometimes tells people he stole it, even if they don’t believe him. Of the tape itself, he said, “It was cute. They’re in love and a couple and they’re just having fun with each other, and I think that’s great. I’m jealous. I wish I had something like that.”

Where is Rand Gauthier now?

An online bio and what appears to be Gauthier’s blog say that he is still working as an electrician. He is also writing a book, which will investigate “the nature of magic and symbolism in religion.”

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