Pamela Anderson lent an element of stardom to Toronto's Fashion Cares AIDS benefit as she reminded Canadians to get tested for HIV no matter how safe you think your partner may be.
"I think somehow AIDS has kind of been off the map a little bit lately," Anderson said in an interview before taking stage at the Bollywood-Cowboy-themed gala on Saturday evening.
"You should still be tested every once in a while even if you are in a marriage because ... you know ... infidelity," said Anderson, looking like a glamorous girl next door in a beige blouse and denim capris, her blond floppy curls bound loosely in a high ponytail.
"Get past the stigma because it's not a gay man's disease. Actually, women and children are the fastest group of people getting it," she said minutes before donning a black evening gown to host the 19th annual Fashion Cares event.
Anderson knows first-hand about trusting one's spouse. She believes she contracted hepatitis C from ex-husband Tommy Lee after sharing tattoo needles. But Lee, former drummer for rock band Motley Crue, has denied having the disease.
"Even though it's never good news to find out you have AIDS, there is life after it," said Anderson, adding that once you know you are positive for HIV you will be able to make choices to take care of your health and ensure the health of your family and loved ones.
Anderson is also MAC Cosmetics' newest Viva Glam spokesperson, following celebrities such as Linda Evangelista and Christina Aguilera.
"Since Pam has been the spokesperson, we have raised $1.8-million - in just one month we had a 200-per-cent increase in Viva Glam sales," said John Demsey, MAC president. For the last 11 years, 100 per cent of the sales of Viva Glam lipstick - $59 million - are donated to people living with AIDS/HIV.
In addition to lending her name to causes, Anderson - a divorced mother of two - manages to drop off her children and pick them up from school.
Her sitcom, Stacked, in which she plays a woman who works in a book store, has been picked up for another season and her second novel, Starstruck, is due for release later this year.
Anderson - who turns 38 on Canada Day - refuses to be compared with Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch, and is happy to hone her comedic skills in Stacked.
"I don't think I can let myself in a category with (Monroe and Welch), I mean they were beyond beautiful.
"I'm definitely not becoming a serious actress (in Stacked) but this is the first opportunity where I'm not winking at the camera and I'm learning a lot from my co-stars," said the former star of Baywatch and VIP. "But it's definitely a new avenue for me."
Anderson wasn't the only blond Canadian star to lend her name to the cause.
"I'm usually a fashion felony," singer Jan Arden, decked out in a David Dixon coat, said at a news conference.
"I'm really not known for anything except, of course, my sex tape that came out a couple of ..." she cracked.
"Yeah, everyone's got one," Anderson interrupted.
"Yeah, but mine ... I was just alone," Arden quipped.
Despite earlier controversy surrounding the Bollywood Hollywood theme, the audience departed from haute couture's basic black and instead was a sea of colourful saris, salvar kameez and kurtha-pyjama suits.
"I feel so ridiculously dressed," said one gala goer in a black tuxedo with a deep red vest and tie - a dashing ensemble at almost any other event.
One sari-clad Indian woman was mistaken for filmmaker Deepa Metha, until the man who pointed her out to his pal said, "No not her. The woman behind her in the black and white sari."
In April, when Fashion Cares went public with the theme and ads - one featuring a white woman portraying Kali, the black goddess of destruction - some members of Toronto's South Asian community were angered.
But at the fundraiser, members of the Indian community welcomed the theme.
"I don't see any harm in that. We do the same. We appropriate white culture for our benefit," said Kumkum Ramchandani, a Toronto writer originally from New Delhi. "I think it's great and if it benefits Bollywood in some way, go for it!"
When asked if she had ever seen a Bollywood movie, Anderson, a Ladysmith, B.C. native, was unsure.
"Probably not. You know, I'm sorry but when I got here I was like ... you spelled Hollywood wrong."
"What's Bollywood?"