The riot around De Wereld Draait Door has been behind us for a while, but Georgina Verbaan also has something to complain about. “I was portrayed there as a stupid ‘gold digger’,” the actress fumes.
Matthijs van Nieuwkerk could not have imagined a sadder end to his TV career: he disappeared from the TV screen without a trace after the revelations about his misconduct at De Wereld Draait Door. And it wasn’t just the presenter, but also his horror sidekick Dieuwke Wynia. And then there were also nasty types like Erik Dijkstra walking around.
Golddigger
Anyway: we know the DWDD tune by now. The riot has been over for a while, but Georgina Verbaan is now stirring things up again. She also says she has had terrible experiences with the program, where she made a lot of money as a table lady. She sat there at Matthijs’ side at all times.
What happened to Georgina? “I regularly joined De Wereld Draait Door, which also included Café de Wereld: a satirical animated series with parodies of famous Dutch people. I was portrayed there as a stupid ‘gold digger’. How I never said anything about that on that stool! Because I thought that was terrible.”
Culture problem
Is it sexism? Not necessarily, says Georgina in an interview with The Telegraph. “I really don’t just blame men, it was a culture problem. Because women also contributed to those parodies. Fortunately, the young generation does not accept these kinds of things.”
If only she were a little more assertive herself, she sighs. “Yes, that I would have been a bit bolder, especially in the past. The media was so harsh and sexist about women back then, even in serious talk shows. Women, and especially young women, were approached in a fairly sexist way.”
Sneak at Ivo
Does she have an example of a TV sexist? “Ivo Niehe’s interview with Britney Spears, for example: she was only seventeen years old in 1999 and he asked her about her breasts, that’s not possible, is it?”
Fortunately, there is woke now, Georgina concludes. “It is a cultural change, a new generation standing up for itself and others. I would say to the ‘woke’ swearers: get used to it.”