Pam Anderson was afraid to Fly after a crazed man mistook her for one of the Chicks

Cowboy take Pamela Anderson away.

Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with her Last Showgirl director, Gia Coppola, Anderson shared her harrowing story of the only time someone mistook the Golden Globe nominee for another celebrity. Sadly, she wasn’t mistaken for fellow Baywatchers Gena Lee Nolin or Yasmine Bleeth. Heck, considering what happened, we would’ve preferred someone who thought she was Hasselhoff. Instead, a crazed man on a plane thought she was a member of the violent anarchist rock band The Chicks (née Dixie Chicks), who, in 2003, dared to say the Iraq War wasn’t such a hot idea.

Anderson said that one time, a man accosted her on a flight and asked, “Do you know what this country’s done for you?” Happy, sad, and confused in equal measure, Anderson wondered, “What have I done?” But the menace continued glaring at her throughout the flight, and eventually, a flight attendant had to “handcuff him to the chair because he was trying to attack me.”

Apparently, the man wasn’t mad at Anderson at all. He was mad at the Chicks! “Yeah. Ended up he thought I was a Dixie Chick. Remember that Dixie Chick thing? I almost got killed on a plane. I was scared to fly after that.”

“That Dixie Chicks thing” refers to a comment made by Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines during a 2003 London concert. “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all, “Maines told the crowd. “We don’t want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President Of The United States is from Texas.” Should it be surprising that the writers of” Goodbye Earl,” an upbeat diddy about an empowered woman killing her abusive husband, would also be anti-war? Probably not, but as readers in 2024 can sympathize, in 2003, critical thinking was out, and feverish nationalism was in. So, while the Chicks wallowed in unnecessary controversy over something they were right about, the Iraq War and its various tendrils pressed on for another catastrophic 20 years. That’s Cancel Culture for you. Nevertheless, while the controversy took a bite out of The Chicks’ popularity, they forged on, unaware that they almost got poor Pamela Anderson killed because they foolishly exercised their First Amendment right.