According to the AD, Paul de Leeuw misbehaved in a children’s hospital by swearing at a director. That goes too far, says Wilfred Genee. “That can be done in a normal way, right?”
You may wonder whether there should be some kind of threshold before workplace issues end up in the media. “Director withdraws after incident with Paul de Leeuw in children’s hospital,” the headline reads A.D big. Nowadays, when you see a headline like this, you quickly think of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk-like scenes, but that is not the case here.
‘Not fitting’
Last year, Paul had a recording at the Princess Máxima Center for his program Not to Be Small (about teenagers with cancer). There he had a ‘severing disagreement’ with a director. “She felt so intimidated that she no longer wanted to continue working with the presenter on location and finished the job in the editing room,” the AD said.
BNNVARA confirmed the incident in a statement: “Paul de Leeuw and one of the directors of the program Not to Be Small had a difference of opinion about the working method during one of the first shooting days. Paul raised his voice and expressed his dissatisfaction towards the director in a way that is not appropriate in a work situation.”
Apologies
Screaming in the workplace is of course no longer allowed in 2024 and Paul immediately repented. “Paul apologized to the director for this that day. We have heard from the producer that these types of incidents did not occur again during the further shooting period.”
The question is: should Paul’s slip immediately make the headlines of the AD after his apology? In the same article, the newspaper makes the link with the enormous scandals at the public broadcaster. “The news comes a week after the publication of the Van Rijn committee report.”
Fellini
Johan Derksen thinks it’s exaggerated, he says Today Inside. “Directors and directors sometimes have the impression that they are Fellini. It is Paul de Leeuw’s program and a disagreement arose about how something should be done. I think that Paul de Leeuw – it is his program – has the final say, and not a hired director.”
Colleague Wilfred Genee does think it is a bad thing. “I agree with you, but that can also be done in a normal way, right?”
The boss
Johan believes that we should not exaggerate and that nowadays every tidbit is made into big news.
Table guest Albert Verlinde: “He has also apologized. It’s a bit of a shame that someone now goes to the newspaper, to the AD, and says: ‘I also have a story.’ Now everyone has a story.”