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Sometimes, even someone like Pamela Anderson — who is boldly herself in every facet — gets a case of mistaken identity.
During an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast to discuss her starring role in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, Anderson was asked if anyone has ever confused her for another celebrity. In response, the actress offered the most unexpected anecdote.
“This one time, I was on a flight and this guy came up to me and said, ‘Do you know what this country’s done for you?’” Anderson recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh, my God. What have I done?’ I was like, oh God. I looked back and he was [angry]. Then this stewardess had to handcuff him to the chair because he was trying to attack me.”
She explained: “Ended up he thought I was a Dixie Chick. Remember that whole Dixie Chick thing?” Anderson added, “I almost got killed on a plane. I was scared to fly after that, a little bit.”
Although Anderson didn’t specify when the incident happened, it was likely soon after the Chicks‘ criticism of former President George W. Bush after he declared war on Iraq in March 2003. At the time, the then-Dixie Chicks were performing in London when lead singer Natalie Maines said onstage that they were “ashamed” that Bush was also from Texas. The backlash was swift and brutal, and the trio was blacklisted from country radio stations across the U.S. As the country music community shunned the group, their album and tour sales were decimated.
Although Maines issued an apology, she told later Time Magazine while promoting their album Not Ready to Make Nice in 2006 that she no longer felt the same. “I apologized for disrespecting the office of the president,” she said. “But I don’t feel that way anymore. I don’t feel he is owed any respect whatsoever.”
In 2020, the group dropped “Dixie” from its name amid worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd and in an apparent move to distance themselves from a term associated with the Confederate-era South.
