For rent: Pamela Anderson's house

This post comes from Marilyn Lewis at MSN Money.

So, you've always thought it might be fun to sleep in Pamela Anderson's bed, have you? Now you can, for a price.

Pam won't be there, but you can rent her king-sized Tempur-Pedic bed -- her entire "dreamy" three-bedroom, 2.5-bath Malibu Colony home, in fact -- for $20,000 a week. Or, if your star is rising and you think you'll be hanging around Hollywood for a while, it's yours for $75,000 a month. Post continues below.

Anderson has listed her teak-sided house on VRBO as Romantic Malibu Beach House #387082. In the unlikely case you're unfamiliar with the site, Vacation Rental By Owner is perhaps the best known site in a newly hot business category: websites that let homeowners snag a little cash by offering their vacant homes to the public.

Writes The Huffington Post:

VRBO charges homeowners to post photos and descriptions of properties, and the owner manages the leasing transaction. Other vacation rental sites function differently, some providing tenant screening and more active management of the property for a percentage of the rental fee.

The strategy

Anderson isn't the first celebrity to offer her home for lease to the hoi polloi (that's you, me and all other mere mortals). But she's one of the first to use her fame to help get the pad rented. HuffPo explains:

… many in Malibu and the Hamptons are displaced for the summer by high-paying tenants -- she's certainly the highest-profile personality to enter the short-term rental market without the shield of anonymity.

Indeed, Anderson signed this note accompanying her rental:

I'm traveling so much these days and am enjoying a lot more time in my native Canada with my family … I'm finally willing to share my masterpiece -- what I've co-created with a handful of green architects and designers/inspired by my favorite architect Lautner (presumably the late John Lautner) -- this is my humble stab at perfection … it's a magical spot … "

The house is considerably more subdued than Anderson's sexpot image, which she simultaneously cultivates and mocks. The former playmate of the month and Playboy centerfold is perhaps as well known for the size of her breast implants (she called them "Pancho and Lefty" during a 2005 Comedy Central roast in her honor), her previous marriage to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and a starring role in a couple of sex tapes as she is for her acting ("Baywatch," "Home Improvement" and "V.I.P."), her activism on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and her work as spokewoman for MAC Cosmetics' MAC AIDS Fund.

HuffPo talked with real-estate agents who suggest the VRBO listing is a canny move that lets her keep "her options open, preferring not to sell her house in a depressed market and allowing for a possible return there as her base."

VRBO's booking calendar on the home's page shows it to be unavailable during all of December and January. Then again, that may just be Pam and the family coming home to Malibu for the holidays.

The house

Who wouldn't want to return here? In spite of the fact that the 16 photos appear heavily retouched -- they're brown-toned and look airbrushed -- the place really does appear to be lovely. Says the VRBO listing:

The highly secure Malibu colony runs along three miles of the most beautiful, white-sand beaches in the heart of Malibu and Pam's home is perfectly situated right by a beach access that puts you right on the world-famous Surfrider beach. World-class surfing at your fingertips!

There's a perfectly tricked out, Miele-appointed chef's kitchen, rooftop decks with ocean and mountains views, an abundance of fireplaces, computer desks and flat-screen TVs.

Outdoors, you'll be able to frolic in a saltwater pool and tipi -- an "authentic Native-American wigwam guest accommodation" -- an allusion to Anderson's Canadian background, the listing says. (According to Wikipedia, Anderson maintains dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship.)

The listing says:

Enter through the front gate, cross the small courtyard and push open the one-of-a-kind, ultra-wide swinging door and find yourself in an open living room and kitchen design with a top-of-the-line home theater and black baby grand piano. The home is high-tech, completely controllable by iPads in what's called "iPorts" flush-mounted in walls in 3 rooms. Beautiful blonde teak floors run through the entire home (inside and out), poured concrete sinks and table tops -- connecting the rooms together in a continuous flow.

A teak stairway leads to the second floor with its master bedroom and guest rooms.

Pam's big bed shares the room with a white marble wood-burning fireplace. The listing says that the "open-tub layout with a large sliding glass wall leading to a massive deck overlooking the pool/deck and tipi area below" is "very Pammy."

More on MSN Money:

• Kardashian can't save Sears
• Weird celebrity insurance policies
• 20 surprising celebrity endorsements
• Where celebrities are investing
• Calculator:Should you rent or buy?
• Celebs who lost big financially