A man who played a key role in the distribution of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee‘s sex tape has spoken out to ‘clear his conscience’ almost three decades later.
Cort St. George was a former consultant at Internet Entertainment Group (IEG), a company which was at the helm of online pornography in the late 1990s.
He claimed that he sold Pamela and Tommy’s explicit home video to porn entrepreneur and IEG founder, Seth Warshavsky, in 1997 after being shown the tape by a friend who had received a copy from another studio exec.
Pamela and Tommy famously made the tape two years prior, in 1995, while on vacation to Lake Mead, a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States.
The tape had been locked away in a safe at the couple’s home, but the safe was stolen by disgruntled workers who had been fired by Tommy for ‘shoddy workmanship.’
Pamela and Tommy didn’t realize their video was stolen until January 1996, but by then copies had already been made.
Speaking in A&E’s new documentary series, Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes, Cort reflected on his part and voiced his regret.
Recalling his initial reaction to it, he said: ‘I was flabbergasted by what we saw. I just started working as a consultant at IEG in Seattle and I said this guy will probably want this video.’
Cort St. George has spoken out about his involvement in the distribution of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape
The former couple, who share two sons together, made a personal home video in 1995 which was then stolen and leaked
Cort alleged that he called Seth and asked him if he would be interested in buying the tape.
He continued: ‘He said yes. I go, let me see if he’ll give us $10,000. I couldn’t really believe that Seth was willing to pay for it. Now I know why he was willing to pay for it actually, he just wanted my signature on the dotted line in case the sh** hit the fan he had somebody to blame.’
Seth’s legal team reached out to Pamela and Tommy with a ‘broad’ release form, which Cort described as a ‘limited contract’.
In an archival interview, Pamela said she only signed the contract because she felt pressured into doing so.
‘The only reason we signed the agreement was [because] it was a week before I was due to give birth and they were making threats to me and I was very focused on much more important things,’ she said.
The video was then streamed online on IEG.
Pamela and Tommy later sued Seth after seeing the video was being sold in stores. They won their case, and in 2001, IEG was ordered to pay the couple $740,000 each. They reportedly never received payment and Seth died in October 2024 from an unreported illness.
Cort voiced regret as he turned his attention to Pamela and Tommy, whose lives were ripped apart because of it.
Voicing his regret in A&E’s Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes, Cort said: ‘I feel like I’m constantly wanting to clear my conscience even though I had very little to do with the whole thing’
Pamela and Tommy sued IEM and were granted damages of $740,000 each, but reportedly never received a dime
‘I know firsthand that Pamela and Tommy made not one dime off that video,’ he said. ‘They didn’t demand any money, I know they turned down money.
‘They fought so hard against it and it did so much damage in their life and that’s again why I’ve done this interview and some other interviews just to make sure the story’s straight.
‘I feel like I’m constantly wanting to clear my conscience even though I had very little to do with the whole thing.
‘I just happened to be at the wrong place at the right time. I feel bad about being involved in it.’ Pamela opened up about the tape in a 2023 interview on CBS Sunday Morning.
‘We were two crazy naked people in love,’ she told host Jim Axelrod at the time. ‘I mean, we were naked all the time and filming each other and being silly.’
She added: ‘Those tapes were not meant for anybody else to see.’
Pamela was so hurt over the tape being leaked she hinted she would have taken her life if she had not been a mom.
She shares two sons, Brandon, 29, and Dylan, 27, with Tommy, whom she divorced in 1998.
‘I was a mother. That saved me,’ Pamela continued. ‘You know, if I wasn’t a mom, I don’t think I would’ve survived.’
Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes premiering on Monday, September 8 at 9pm ET/PT on A&E.
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