Pamela Anderson was preferred choice for Scully role in X-Files

SHE'S known for saying 'Don't call me babe' but she was almost called Dana Scully.

In the most preposterous piece of publicity for the upcoming X-Files: I Want to Believe, it's claimed that Pamela Anderson was the studio's top choice for the role in the X-Files TV show that went instead to Gillian Anderson. Same surname, very different women.

This may well be another of those pieces of tabloid fiction, but Gillian, 39, is reported as saying: "Pamela was somebody who was more familiar to them in terms of what was on TV at the time. They were looking for someone bustier, taller, leggier than me.

"They couldn't fathom how David (Duchovny) and me could equal success. Chris [Carter, series creator] stuck to his guns."

She added: "Really, though, at the beginning, nobody trusted that I could do anything. I had no body of work behind me at all and certainly, Fox felt very strongly that I wasn't the right person for the job."

The new movie may well be called I Want to Believe but in this case I don't. I cannot imagine the top-heavy Baywatch blonde tottering round, chasing mutants and aliens and pretending to be an FBI agent with a scientific background.

The X-Files catchphrase is 'The truth is out there.' It's hard to believe it's in this report, for sure.

The images here are from Pamela's comicbook movie dud Barb Wire, as they were virtually the only pictures available where she was wearing more than a thong that was being provocatively pulled to one side. The Sex-Files perhaps. Thank goodness we got Gillian.