Arno Kantelberg portrays the male Nikkie Plessen on RTL Boulevard: equally meaningless, but with a stubble beard. What did his down-to-earth former colleague Peter R. de Vries think of that?
Time flies: Arno Kantelberg has been working for RTL Boulevard for eight years, where he is one of the fashion experts. How does he fit into the group, the weekly asks Weekend wonders. “Rob Goossens recently told us that Bridget Maasland and Peter R. de Vries initially had a lot of difficulty with his arrival. Was that the same for you?” the magazine asks him.
Big with Peter
Arno states that this was not the case with him. “I am in a ‘harmless segment’, because I discuss fashion trends and the like. Rob of course occasionally stirs up those open nerves in the media. These are much more controversial topics and then you are also much more controversial as an expert.”
He continues: “Together with Aran Bade, he always gets the bullshit. I never do. I sit in a happy corner. So no, I didn’t have to win anyone over. I was even very close with Peter R. de Vries.”
Mentor
Despite his tidbits, Peter did not treat Arno as a second-class colleague. “I worked for Peter in the editorial office in my first year and we have kept in touch ever since. He has been a kind of mentor to me. I was the last person he spoke to before he left the studio…”
He continues: “I really had a lot of trouble with it at the time and it continued to trickle down for a long time. Every year on the anniversary of his death, we reflect on it with the editors. We then go to Leidseplein. I still find it difficult.”
Mercilessness
What exactly is that about him? Arno: “It is rather the ruthlessness that makes it difficult. He walked in the other direction, to his car, and I went to my bicycle.”
“I never thought: what if we had chatted for a while? Or: what if I had walked with him? Could I have done something? No, I didn’t think that way.”
