'STACKED' Pam wanted real, not reality

The actress is happy not to be on 'Surreal Life' or some other reality series.
By MARISA GUTHRIE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Pamela Anderson is embarking on some career resuscitation.
No, she's not taking a bunk in the "Surreal Life" house. Rather, she's mocking her own tabloid inflated image in a comedy.
"It's a bit of a stretch," joked Anderson. "But it's fun to kind of poke fun at yourself."
In "Stacked," premiering Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. EDT on Fox, Anderson plays a sweet but vacuous party girl who decides that she's had enough hangovers and bad dates.
Looking to change her life, she wanders into a bookstore called "The Stacks," where one of the dweeby owners (Brian Scolaro), who can't help but notice her considerable, um ... assets, offers her a job.
She accepts, hoping that being around all those books and pencil-neck geeks will help to reform her dissolute ways.
"Her character is loosely based on her, but an un-famous version of Pamela Anderson," said creator Steve Levitan. "And we get to take lots of liberties."
In Wednesday's pilot episode, Anderson's character laments her bad choices in boyfriends. At a bar one evening, two guys were hitting on her, she says. Guy No. 1 was kind and considerate and had a good job, guy No. 2 was "drunk, covered in tattoos and licking my face."
Some personal items
"Guess which one I leave with?"
"And that's true," said Levitan. "That's how she met [ex-husband] Tommy Lee. He came up to her and licked her face."
The production of "Stacked" has gone through a period of disarray. Tom Everett Scott was originally cast as the one of the brothers who owns the bookstore. After shooting the pilot and nearly finishing rehearsals on the series' second episode, he was replaced by comedian Elon Gold.
Apparently, the tall, dark and handsome Scott was not right as a high-strung bookworm.
"It was a total professional decision," said Anderson. "I was really worried about Tom, but I found out that it happens a lot. Lisa Kudrow got fired from 'Frasier."'
"Tom is a wonderful actor," added Levitan, "but he was not what I had in mind for [the part]. He was a little too laid back. [The character] needs to be an uptight, neurotic intellectual, and I think that Elon can portray that in a way that's much closer to what I had envisioned."
Levitan constructed the show around Anderson, 37, who through her failed marriage to rocker Lee and near marriage to Kid Rock, has become a tabloid staple and the poster girl for bad relationships.
But, said Levitan, "Stacked" is not a down-market comedy.
"I think people have certain expectations that this is going to be something really kitschy," said Levitan. "You don't necessarily picture Pamela Anderson in something like 'Frasier,' but that's what we're hoping for. The show is actually really smart.
"Pamela Anderson [may be] the thing that attracts people to the show," he continued, "but then let's surprise them with something that is really smart and sophisticated."
When Anderson was approached for the show, she said, "I thought I would have to give [the writers] a lot of stories. But I didn't have to give them anything because everybody already knows everything about my life."
And, she said, that's just fine.
"I'm just glad I'm doing a real show and not a reality show," said Anderson. "To me, the people who watch reality shows are the same people who read the supermarket tabloids.
"It's so great to have a real job," she added, "and work with real writers and real actors."