Paul de Leeuw not pleased with YoutubeThe following excerpt from a 1997 NRC (a broadsheet) article refers to another clip from the same era, oddly enough featuring the same song:
AMSTERDAM - Paul de Leeuw is fed up with Youtube. The presenter deplores that the video web site allows him to be painted as a paedophile based on an old clip from his chat show.
"Surely there has to be some kind of editorial oversight through which such errors can be tracked down and acted upon," he posits in his weekly colum in Vara TV Magazine.
In the video he sings "'Kon ik nog maar even bij je zijn" (If only I could see you one more time) with Keesje Groenteman, relative of presenter Hanneke Groenteman. In an attempt to break the boy's concentration, De Leeuw kisses the boy on the neck, hugs him and hangs him upside down. International Youtube visitors respond furiously to the video, titled "Creepy Dutch paedophile Paul de Leeuw".
Context
De Leeuw acknowledges the clip is taken out of context and thus may confound an international audience. "After ten years it is suddenly being rediscovered by complete strangers who know nothing about me and assume that it's from the Netherlands and therefore automatically malevolent."
Broadcaster Vara's flagship celebrity feels taking independent action would prove ineffectual: "We didn't want the video removed, out of fear of a 'where there's smoke, there's fire' type reaction."
"You're off-key," he snapped at the dejected-looking child. "Why don't you go stand in the corner for the rest of the show". The boy's lip trembled. A wave of outrage ensued. It had been a mere joke, De Leeuw would later proclaim, guffawing. With the performance - which had been entirely scripted - he had intended to address the strictly disciplined drills real-life child stars are made to endure. But it didn't help much. The entire cast of Sesame Street demanded an apology.The bottom line, for me: the post should have been deleted. Not because the linked content itself is inappropriate, rather, because of the way the FPP and the Break.com entry were framed they cast serious aspersions upon someone of whom the poster had little further knowledge, and I feel further research was warranted (and would have been entirely feasible, this clip is all over the web with his name attached).
Domestic joy has calmed De Leeuw. "The need to succeed has faded. I've got more perpsective now. Why? My kids. Absolutely! I'd walk to the end of the world for them. A bad show or a dud record may get me down a bit, but at six-thirty in the morning, the boys will always wake up again.posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 12:00 PM on April 24, 2008 [6 favorites]
"In the end, you're still just buttering sandwiches. More acutely: when we were sat next to our youngest, at the ICU in America. Just hoping he would make it. In that situation, nothing else matters."
De Leeuw, together with husband Stephan is father to two adopted sons, Kas (5) and Toby (3). The boys were born with dismal perspectives in Philadelphia in the US; now, they go to school in Blaricum, villa capital of 't Gooi [rural-suburban area with a lot of broadcast types, Blaricum is about the richest town in the country]. Smiling from ear to ear: "They're doing very well, get along with their peers, have nice playmates and recently, when [Stephan & I] were out one evening, they tearfully pleaded with the babysitter: 'Where are the daddies?'."
His life has changed indefinitely. "I feel I'm getting more out of my family now than work. I'm acutely aware of my responsibilities, too. Kas and Toby trust us unconditionally. We can never allow that to be damaged. They had no base [in the US]. Now they do, in Stephan and me. Perhaps later, they wil blame us for taking them away from there, but right now I think: 'they're not so terribly bad off with us'.
"We're a happy family [uses English phrase as a sort of affectation]. I genuinely enjoy doing all of this: reading them bedtime stories, decorating the classroom, chatting with the other parents in the schoolyard. Of course, I sometimes worry: will they be accepted when they get older, what with them being the black sons of two white fathers? Children can be real bullies.
"Recently, Kas asked me, a bit sportingly: 'Why don't I have a mother?' 'Because you've got two fathers!' End of discussion. For now. Later we will explain everything. We want to be honest.
Do you like being smothered in gravy and juicy smacking kisses?Well, who doesn't?
posted by carsonb at 9:24 PM on April 23, 2008