It is still incomprehensible to Guido den Aantrekker that his Story lost a case against Linda de Mol in the nineties. “You could just see her from the public road!”
The gossip magazines used to be what the juice outlets are today: extremely brash and constantly talked-about. They got into one lawsuit after another, often about the privacy of celebrities. “There has been a case that Linda de Mol once brought against us,” says Story boss Guido den Aantrekker in the podcast MICHA.
Linda on a dike
What was that thing then? “It was a long time ago, because she had just had her first child: Julian, and she was still living in Loenen aan de Vecht at the time. She lived on a very narrow dike, in an incredibly beautiful house right on the Vecht. Yes, and she had not been photographed with her child at all.”
He continues: “I remember when she was sitting in front of the window with that child on her lap. And yes, everyone could see that from the road, because the road ran past that window. There wasn’t even a sidewalk. Then Story’s photographer took a picture. A very beautiful serene, sweet picture of her with her child. But yes, that was not allowed, it turned out. Well, that’s where the limit is.”
Public road
Isn’t it going a bit far to photograph a celebrity in his or her private environment? “I thought differently about that, our lawyer at the time too. I wasn’t on the editorial board at the time, I should add, you know. I think I was still just a starting journalist at the time.”
He continues: “I think very simply: everything you can see from the public road should be judged a bit milder than if someone is sitting behind a huge hedge a hundred meters away and you have to stand on a step stool with a huge telephoto lens. I think that’s a different story.”
Dionne Stax
Does Guido also have a more recent example? “Look, we once had a case from Dionne Stax’s ex-partner. He had a relationship with her, after she was on the cover of a magazine every week for a year and a half because of her alleged relationship with Humberto Tan.”
This is about radiologist Sytse Oudkerk. “He chose her. You then knowingly know that you will get into a relationship with such a woman. Yes, at one point he started a case against us. We had photographed him with Dionne on the public road in a cozy, fun, intimate attitude, so not talking heavily or anything.”
Angry radiologist
That man was furious. “He was so angry about it that he wanted us never to photograph him on the street again. Well, of course you can’t. But then he says: ‘Yes, I’m a radiologist and that magazine is in the waiting room. How can I still treat my patient seriously when I’m on a cover like that?’ Yes, that’s not my problem.”
“If you are of course dating the only woman in the Netherlands who has been on the cover every week for a year and a half, then you can’t start complaining that you don’t want that, can you? The judge completely blew that away, of course.”
MICHA
Mischa Blok’s entertaining interview with Guido: