Pamela Anderson is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood.

Ever since she was spotted on the huge jumbotron screen at a baseball game aged 21, her physical traits have been the overriding subject the world has focused on.

Now 57, the actress and model is claiming back her life, her story and forging a new path in her career.

“I feel so free,” she tells Sky News during a conversation in a London hotel about her latest film The Last Showgirl.

“I write a lot of emotional journals and there’s a lot that you can get out. You can go to therapy, or you can talk to your best friend, but there’s nothing like an art project to express yourself and heal parts of yourself.”

The Last Showgirl follows a seasoned entertainer who has to plan for her future when her Las Vegas show abruptly ends after a 30-year run.

The role almost slipped from her fingers when her old agent passed on the script.

“I have a new agent now,” she says with a smile.

It was her son Brandon who served as a catalyst in her career resurgence after stumbling upon the screenplay and showing it to his mother.

“My sons are so protective of me and their goal is just to say: ‘Mom, we just want you to be able to know that you focused on us as kids and we want you to have the opportunity to shine and to reach your potential as an actress’.”

She adds: “I do have a lot to give, so now I just feel so free. I couldn’t have done anything like this when I had kids because my focus was with them. Now that they’re grown and they’re doing well and they’re thriving, that gives me the opportunity to be able to play in this universe.”

The Canadian-American has been the victim of many harsh headlines over the years with her most challenging moments played out in front of the world.

One of the toughest moments, when her sex tape with her ex-husband Tommy Lee was leaked, ended up being made into its own TV series starring Oscar nominee Sebastian Stan and English actress Lily James.

Anderson had no input in the show and repeatedly called for it to be scrapped.

Anderson says that despite the adversity and misogyny she has faced being in the public eye, she feels ready to take on the spotlight again. This time on her terms.

“It was hard for me decades ago, and now I can look at it as a learning experience. And it was a different time. I think that looking at it through my kids’ eyes was interesting.

“Talking to my adult children about having a mom who was, you know, objectified in some way and how that felt [for them] and how that shaped them and their experience growing up, being teased in school.”

Her sons, Brandon and Dylan, are now both in their late 20s.

Drawing similarities to her character Shelly in The Last Showgirl, Anderson says the film serves as a reflection of the sacrifices, external expectations and realities connected to being a woman and a mother.

“We’re doing the best we can with the tools that we have and what we’ve seen growing up. And there’s no perfect way to be a parent, there really isn’t – and especially in this industry.

“When I did Playboy, when I was in Baywatch, I wasn’t thinking about how it was affecting my kids. I was thinking about just keeping the lights on and living this exciting life and getting through it myself.

“But, you know, it affects everybody around you – your parents, your friends, your kids – and so to kind of look at it from that way [in The Last Showgirl] and to have empathy for the character of Shelly dealing with that… I had some experience to draw from.”

The film also stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka as her close friends and co-workers in a fading corner of the Las Vegas strip.

Anderson adds of the film: “I think this can resonate with any working mom. We all carry this guilt and shame and wish we would have done this or that. And we have to be happy, too.”

The Last Showgirl is out in UK cinemas from Friday 28 February.

Cliff Nicholls runs two trampoline parks and indoor play centres: one in Tamworth in the West Midlands, the other in Bolton, Greater Manchester. He’s already feeling the pressure from the government’s latest budget measures and has been forced to abandon further investment plans.

“The national minimum wage increases coming in April, combined with the reduced thresholds for national insurance and the increased rate of employers’ national insurance, will have a very significant impact,” Cliff said.

To cut costs, he’s already made drastic changes. “We’ve had to take some fairly radical decisions, reducing our opening hours, making a senior staff member redundant because of rising business costs, including business rates and national insurance,” he added.

While policies like the National Living Wage (NLW) increase are designed to support low-paid workers, other changes could offset these benefits.

One major shift is the reduction in the salary threshold at which businesses start paying employer’s national insurance contributions (NICs).

Currently, employers begin paying NICs when an employee earns more than £9,100 per year. From April 2025, this threshold will drop to £5,000. At the same time, the employer’s NI rate will rise from 13.8% to 15%.

Scroll through to see Cliff’s staffing finances

Under the new system, an employer will be paying nearly £800 more in NICs annually for an employee earning around £23,800 (based on a 37.5-hour week at the new NLW).

The rise in NICs will be proportionally higher for employers of lower-paid workers. For example, they will pay around 7% for someone earning £9,000 a year and 3% for an employee on the NLW. But for someone earning £75,000 a year, employers will pay 2% more.

Extended employment rights and business rates add pressure

Labour also announced a series of employment rights reforms aimed at improving working conditions. These include extending statutory sick pay to lower-paid employees who were previously ineligible and making it available from the first day of illness for all workers.

The changes would also enable employees to claim unpaid parental leave from their first day in a job, strengthen protections against unfair dismissal, and enhance rights for those on zero-hours contracts.

The government estimates that these employment rights changes will cost businesses around £5bn.

Nye Cominetti, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “What concerns me is that employer national insurance increases, like the minimum wage and employment rights changes, disproportionately impact low-paid workers.

“For instance, extending statutory sick pay to those previously ineligible adds costs for employers already facing higher NICs and rising wages. In this context, it would have been more sensible to raise tax revenue in a way that didn’t hit low-paid workers the hardest.”

But for Cliff, the changes to business rates relief are an even bigger challenge. Budget changes will mean business rates relief will drop from 75% to 45% for retail, leisure, and hospitality businesses, significantly increasing his costs.

“The business rates changes probably have a bigger impact on us than national insurance,” he explained.

“One of our buildings used to be in a prime edge-of-town retail park 25 years ago. The rental value has dropped significantly since but business rates haven’t kept pace. Next year, we’ll be paying between £55,000 and £60,000 more just in business rates.”

Cliff is not alone in his concerns.

Research conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses found that in the final three months of last year, confidence among small firms fell to its lowest level in a decade, excluding the pandemic.

Are these changes impacting inflation?

Higher prices for food, goods, and services will also put pressure on working people.

New data from the Office for National Statistics shows that inflation rose to 3% in January 2025, the highest level in 10 months.

Many businesses had warned this would happen, saying that rising national insurance costs and the increase in the NLW would leave them with no choice but to raise prices.

The latest Quarterly Economic Survey by the British Chambers of Commerce, conducted after the budget, surveyed more than 4,800 businesses. It found that more than half expect to increase prices in the next three months, up from 39% in the third quarter of 2024.

Businesses are making tough decisions

Signs of pressure are already emerging.

Lord Wolfson, a Conservative peer and chief executive of Next, has warned that it will become harder for people to enter the workforce.

In an interview with the BBC, he said that the rise in NICs for businesses would hit the retail sector particularly hard, with entry-level jobs most affected.

He urged the government to phase in the tax changes rather than implement them in full in April, warning that otherwise, businesses would be forced to cut jobs or reduce working hours.

While it is not possible to fully attribute this to budget announcements, early data suggests that the workforce has been shrinking across various industries since October 2024, with the biggest declines in sectors that employ large numbers of lower-paid workers, such as manufacturing, retail, and hospitality.

Since the budget, the number of payrolled employees has fallen by more than 10,000 in manufacturing and nearly 9,000 in hospitality.

Since the budget, voluntary liquidations have remained consistently high and from December 2024 to January 2025 voluntary business closures have gone up by 9%.

While this can’t be solely attributed to upcoming budget measures, it does highlight the challenges businesses are facing and the difficult decisions they are making as a result.

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An HM Treasury spokesperson said: “We delivered a once-in-a-parliament budget to wipe the slate clean and deliver the stability businesses need to invest and grow, while protecting working people’s payslips from higher taxes, ensuring more than half of employers either see a cut or no change in their National Insurance bills, and delivering a record pay boost for millions of workers.

“Now we are going further and faster to kickstart economic growth and raise living standards, with a majority of business leaders confident that the chancellor’s plans will help drive business investment.

“This includes backing businesses to create wealth across Britain by capping corporation tax, making full expensing permanent and permanently cutting business rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses on the high street from next year.”

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

A major police search is taking place for a runner who has been missing for three days – as officers say they are becoming “increasingly concerned”.

Jenny Hall, 23, was last seen leaving her home in Barracks Farm, Tow Law, County Durham, in her car just after 3pm on Tuesday.

In an update on Friday, Durham Constabulary said her last known location was on the B6278 between Stanhope and Eggleston – where her red Ford Focus was parked.

Sniffer dogs are being used in the area, with the search concentrated on running trails between Eggleston and Hamsterley used regularly by Ms Hall.

Several expert mountain rescue search teams and air support have joined the operation.

More than 100 miles of track have been searched in the Teesdale area by officers, the rural community and local landowners.

Digital intelligence officers have also carried out extensive enquiries into Ms Hall’s mobile phone, smart watch and running apps, but the force said “none have yielded any results unfortunately”.

Police focused on areas ‘Jenny likes to run through’

Chief Inspector Dean Haythornthwaite said in a statement: “We have become increasingly concerned for Jenny since she was reported missing on Tuesday and have been exploring all lines of enquiry, including dozens from members of the public.

“We are focusing our search on areas we know Jenny likes to run through and we are determined to do everything we can to find her.

“I would like to thank everyone who is working around-the-clock in our search and efforts to reunite Jenny with her family.”

Ms Hall is described as white and 6ft tall with dark brown hair.

She was last seen wearing a blue hoodie with a John Deere logo and dark jogging bottoms.

Her family told police she may have been carrying a green jacket and had her hair up in a ponytail.

Anyone who believes they may have seen Ms Hall or has any relevant information about her whereabouts is asked to contact police.