Pamela Anderson is spending the holidays in London—a Christmas gift of sorts from the mother country to us gormless colonial types, I imagine. At any rate, the Brits have taken the additional, incredibly masochistic step of allowing Pam to appear onstage in a pantomime production of Aladdin and the Lamp. (British pantomime has little or nothing to do with Marcel Marceau, so this is less bizarre than it seems. Somewhat.) The production also features veteran actor Brian Blessed as the evil Abanazar. Blessed has been doing Christmas panto since 2005, but clearly he doesn’t regard appearing onstage with Ms. Anderson as a career high point. Asked how he felt about working with her, the distinguished actor seemed less than thrilled:

Pamela fucking Anderson? I wouldn’t touch her with yours. I’ve starred alongside Sophia Loren. What the fuck is all that about Pamela Anderson?”

This may have had something to do with Pam’s failure to show up for rehearsals, and her subsequent failure to show up for her first two performances. That, or Blessed is a man of taste and intelligence. At any rate, lucky Londoners will have the chance to see Pamela as the Genie in the Lamp through December 27, when the role will be taken by other actors. Which means she’ll probably be coming back here (*sigh*).