Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson had fans eating up their flirty press tour, but behind the scenes, it was all a PR “bake-off” … TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the whole “Pam + Liam” love fest was cooked up by their PR teams and Paramount — while “The Naked Gun” was still filming in Spring 2024.

In fact, we’re told Pamela and Liam didn’t even see each other from the time cameras stopped rolling in June 2024 until the press tour launched more than a year later, in July 2025.

A big slice of the stunt involved Pamela claiming she was baking muffins and sourdough bread for Liam — something he even played along with in interviews leading up to the premiere. It makes us now assume that was also part of the strategy … pure role-play PR, not reality.

Our sources also say Pam and Liam have never had one-on-one dinners. Whenever they did break bread, assistants were at the table … strictly biz, zero romance.

We reached out to both actors’ reps, but so far, no word back.

So forget the love story … this was always just a recipe to put asses in movie theater seats, and we gotta say it worked!