Pamela Anderson. Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Pamela Anderson had a scary mid-flight encounter with a man who mistook her for one of The Chicks.
Anderson, 57, shared the story on the Monday, January 6, episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast when host Josh Horowitz asked her which celebrity she’s been confused with.
“This one time, I was on a flight and this guy came up to me and said, ‘Do you know what this country’s done for you?’” Anderson remembered. “And I was like, ‘Oh, my God. What have I done?’”
Anderson went on to recall that the man glared at her from his seat and eventually tried to harm her.
“This stewardess had to handcuff him to the chair because he was trying to attack me,” she said, explaining that “he thought I was a Dixie Chick. Remember that whole Dixie Chick thing? I almost got killed on a plane.”
More than 20 years ago, The Chicks — formerly known as The Dixie Chicks — received major backlash after lead singer Natalie Maines took the stage at a London concert in 2003 and denounced President George W. Bush and the decision to invade Iraq. “Just so you know,” she said between songs, “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
Afterward, country music stations pulled the band’s music amid listener complaints and allegations of “anti-American” rhetoric. (In 2006, Maines, 50, and bandmates Martie Maguire and Emily Robinson triumphed with the success of their seventh album, Taking the Long Way, which earned them five Grammys.)
Anderson recalled on “Happy Sad Confused” that her run-in with the angry man had shaken her.
“I was scared to fly after that, a little bit,” she said.
The Baywatch icon, meanwhile, is enjoying a career comeback for her acclaimed role in the film The Last Showgirl. Anderson earned a 2025 Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, losing to Fernanda Torres. She hit the red carpet in style, however, eschewing full glam for minimal makeup — her signature.
She has recently embraced a bare-faced look at glamorous events, first at Paris Fashion Week in 2023, and inspired others to do the same.
“I’m makeup-free at home, so why not for Paris Fashion Week?” she told People that year, adding, “I didn’t expect anyone to notice, but I’m glad it sparked a positive message.”
She emphasized her desire to break free from conventional beauty standards, saying, “It felt empowering to look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m OK just like this.’”
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