Pam Anderson Recruited Notorious Celebrity P.I., Famous For His Work With Michael Jackson, To Track Down Her Stolen Sex Tape After Safe Went Missing

Pamela Anderson was determined to locate the private 1996 sex tape she filmed with then-hubby Tommy Lee that was stolen from their home, recruiting a celebrity-famous private investigator for the job, RadarOnline.com can report.

After the shocking discovery, Lee and Anderson's worlds were turned upside down as Penthouse magazine was gearing up for publication, planning to splash the X-rated images taken from the missing video across their pages.

The now-exes slapped Penthouse publishers with a $10 million lawsuit at the time, explaining the tape contained "the private lovemaking of a husband and wife" and such images were never intended to be publicly disseminated.

In another attempt at putting the ordeal behind them once and for all, Anderson hired A-list sleuth/notorious P.I. Anthony Pellicano to locate the video, which had been locked in a safe that had gone MIA from their home. Pellicano has been well known in Tinseltown, with clients including Michael Jackson, Brad Grey, and super-agent Michael Ovitz.

Anderson weathered the sex tape scandal while pregnant, putting further strain on the couple as they navigated how to proceed with the legal landmine while grappling with their most intimate moments being shared without their consent.

Judge Stephen W. Wilson, who presided over the case, later rejected the civil suit and ultimately allowed Penthouse to publish images from the sex tape.

More recently, Anderson admitted that she still to this day has never watched her sex tape with the Motley Crüe drummer, revealing their kids helped her to cope.

"I was a mother. That saved me," Anderson said in hindsight during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. "You know, if I wasn't a mom, I don't think I would've survived."

In the years after being recruited by Anderson, her former P.I. had a series of legal woes as some of the celebs he worked with were clients, while others were later deemed to be targets.

Pellicano was accused of wiretapping actor Sylvester Stallone, and running the names of Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon through law enforcement databases to assist his clients.

RadarOnline.com confirmed in March of last year that he was off probation and officially a free man, 13 years after being found guilty of wiretapping, racketeering, conspiracy, and wire fraud in 2008.