Critics say Pam Anderson comments blame sexual assault victims

Model-turned-actress Pamela Anderson sparked backlash Thursday following an interview in which she seemed to cast blame on certain victims of sexual assault.

The former “Baywatch” star responded to questions about the wave of allegations against powerful men in entertainment and other industries, according to the Daily Beast.

“It was common knowledge that certain producers or certain people in Hollywood are people to avoid, privately,” Anderson said.

She went on to tell “Today” host Megyn Kelly that a woman knows “what you’re getting into if you’re going into a hotel room alone.”

Recalling her early days in Hollywood, she said she “had a lot of offers to do private auditions and things that made absolutely no sense,” explaining those experiences made her more cautious.

In an apparent reference to alleged abuses by producer Harvey Weinstein, by whom she claimed to have been verbally assaulted, Anderson described some of the situations she believes should have been red flags for women.

“Don’t go into a hotel room alone,” she said. “If someone enters a door in a bathrobe, leave. These things that are common sense.”

Instead of taking a meeting with a powerful Hollywood executive one-on-one, Anderson said victims should have insisted their agents accompany them.

“I think there’s easy ways to remedy that,” she said. “That’s not a good excuse.”

The comments were interpreted by some critics as Anderson blaming victims of sexual misconduct in many of the alleged incidents described over the past several months.

Anderson, herself a victim of childhood sexual abuse, also commented on the topic from a different perspective in the same interview.

“We naturally blame ourselves,” she said. “You somehow think that you were to blame.”

In previous interviews, she has expressed a desire to send the message to victims that they are not to blame.

Her seemingly contradictory comments Thursday were not the first time her reputation as a victims’ advocate has been questioned.

As Page Six reported in September, Pamela Anderson has maintained a complex relationship with Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange, who has faces charges in Sweden associated to a rape allegations.

Daily Beast editor Marlow Stern pointed out the connection Thursday in a tweet linking to the site’s article.

[Featured image: Pamela Anderson/Associated Press]