'My breasts have been my career'

She's the original all-American babe - Californian tan, blonde hair, big blue eyes, even bigger boobs and perfect-pout lips. Ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson may have a brain but she is under no illusion about what has made her famous. ''My breasts have been my career and I've just tagged along,'' she says.

Nothing fazes this petite blonde bombshell as she faces an enormous bank of photographers at her first UK book signing for her new novel, Star.

Dressed in skimpy vest top to show off her best assets, emblazoned with the words "F*** off, I'm with the band", she breezes into the store to give the fans a hug, a photo, something to remember her by.

Surprisingly, the adoring hordes are not all testosterone-fuelled men. Women have come with their daughters, young mothers want Pammie to hold their babies and have her picture taken with them, and she happily complies. Well, she's a mom too, she would say.

But the men aren't disappointed. In one delighted fan's book, the 37-year-old pin-up writes: ''I wish I'd met you when I was 17.''

She seems to have the ability to ooze sexiness and smalltown girl ordinariness in equal measure so no-one is disappointed.

Of course, her breasts have always been a talking point. They started off as a more than healthy 34D, then she had implants, had them removed when she divorced rock star Tommy Lee and put back again when she decided she missed them.

Clad in figure-hugging fashion from her own range of clothing, she doesn't look quite as out of proportion as she did in those dangerously high-cut red swimsuits in Baywatch, but the breasts are still the most prominent part of her anatomy.

The boob job is the only surgery she's ever had on her body and she isn't looking at any other enhancement at the moment. ''I like the rumours about what I might have done,'' she smiles. ''I don't think I'd have surgery on any other part of my body, but you can never say never.''

Critics may brand her a bimbo, but Pammie is laughing all the way to the bank with her first novel, Star, about a smalltown girl who becomes up a pin-up and the toast of the Hollywood jetset. Ghostwritten by her friend, Eric Shaw Quinn, it is already a US bestseller.

The book is awash with hedonism, sexual encounters and orgies. Everything you'd expect from Pamela Anderson. ''It's a novel based on my life but it's completely made up,'' she says ambiguously.

However, there are obvious real life similarities. The book's heroine, Star, is spotted when her picture is flashed on the screen at an American football game, as Pamela was.

Star becomes a centrefold and lands a part in an imaginary TV series, Lifeguards Inc. Pamela appeared in Playboy 12 times and starred in Baywatch. Star meets a rock star who introduces himself by licking her face, as Tommy Lee did to Pamela.

Ironically, the book is being released in this country at almost the same time as her ex-husband's memoir, Tommyland. But she dismisses any notions of competition. ''My book came out a long time ago in the US. Mine is a novel and his isn't.

''Tommy and I are very good friends. We have two beautiful children together and I would never say anything bad about him. We will always love each other and he will be in my life forever. I see him all the time.''

Pamela feels no anger or malice towards her ex, despite the fact that he received a six-month jail sentence for assaulting her during their stormy marriage.

Later, she was diagnosed with the potentially fatal disease Hepatitis C, which she claimed she caught through sharing an infected tattoo needle with him, something which he has denied.

Not so long ago, Pamela thought she only had ten years to live, but she has since said the claim was wildly exaggerated and that she has medical checks on her liver and seems to be doing okay.

Nowadays, her children, Brandon, eight, and six-year-old Dylan, both by Tommy Lee, are her entire life, she says.

At home near Malibu, California, she leaves her stilettos by the door - jogging bottoms and casual T-shirts are her wardrobe when she does the school run. ''I'm a soccer mom and I do the cut-up oranges and go and cheer them on. I'm just another mom in a sweatsuit. I bake cookies for the classrooms and I'm a lunch monitor.''

The UK publicity for her book has taken her away from her boys for a week, the longest time she's been separated from them since they were born - and she is already missing them terribly.

''I'm devastated at not being with them. My mom is looking after them and I'm sending home soccer balls and shirts and lots of other stuff. It's what moms who are away a lot do, I guess.''

How do her sons feel about her career?

''They kind of understand, but they think everyone's mother does that. They ask their friends: 'What TV show is your mom on', and: 'What band is your dad in?'. They think everyone's in a band or on TV.''

Pamela has no regrets about any of her career and no worries about what her sons may think in later years. She says: ''I have nothing to be ashamed of. Playboy is a beautiful magazine.''

She skims over the subject of the infamous bootleg sex video of her with Tommy Lee. But then, she says, it was never made for public consumption. ''That wasn't meant to be for the public - it was stolen and whoever did that should be ashamed of themselves,'' she counters.

She has taken time away from her career to look after her children, although she is planning an even sexier sequel to Star.

Pamela is cagey about the men in her life now. She says she is dating, but nothing serious, although her name has been linked with Christian Monzon and her exes include Kid Rock, Scott Baio and Dean Cain. ''I do want to get married again one day,'' she says.

In the meantime, no doubt, she'll be revelling in the glory of her novel, which, judging by her popularity at the book signings, may soar up the book charts over here too. And all from a woman known more for her breasts than her brain.

* Star, by Pamela Anderson with Eric Shaw Quinn (Simon & Schuster) £12.99