The catering industry is closed and no one is allowed outside after 9 p.m. without a valid reason, but influencers such as Jaimie Vaes, Estelle Cruijff and Koen Kardashian were having an extensive dinner on Thursday. Earlier, Katja Schuurman and Richard Groenendijk were already discredited for a visit to Bonaire. How is it possible that celebrities seem to keep going, while the rest of the Netherlands is at home?
Vaes and her friends were served a four-course dinner at a long table full of roses. Nobody kept their distance and the dinner took place in a restaurant in Amsterdam. If you pay close attention, you will see that there were cameras and that Discovery + NL is tagged in some of the messages from Vaes and her table companions. The streaming service has been broadcasting a real-life soap about the life of Lil ‘Kleine’s girlfriend since February 14.
In a time when everyone is compulsory at home, such a dinner is striking. But when NU.nl asks Discovery + about it, the answer is simple: recordings were made for the Vaes series and so this is allowed. That is also the case in the rules that the national government has on the site, the streaming service emphasizes.
“Producers in the audiovisual sector are allowed to make recordings for, for example, films, series, commercials and documentaries. There is no maximum number of people. But only if it is necessary for the continuation of the daily work of cultural institutions, companies and other organizations.”
Tigris Media, the producer of Jaimie: In the Vaes Lane, when asked, let us know that the recordings were indeed made for Vaes’ reallife soap. “During the recordings we tried to comply with the rules that apply to the audiovisual sector. If this has come across differently on social media, we deeply regret this.”
Jaimie Vaes and friends in a restaurant in Amsterdam. (Source: Instagram / Elaine ten Cate)
Jaimie Vaes and friends in a restaurant in Amsterdam. (Source: Instagram / Elaine ten Cate)
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Schuurman and Groenendijk on Bonaire for recordings
Schuurman and Groenendijk were seen by other Dutch people on Bonaire and had to justify themselves on social media for their visit to the island. That took a while, but in extensive messages they announced that they were not on vacation and that they were abroad for the shooting of a new film. The work must continue and it is nice that the sector continues to run a bit, they concluded.
The audiovisual sector has drawn up a protocol that is adhered to when recording films, talk shows and series. That protocol states, among other things, that it is important to consider how necessary it is for specific people to be present at the recordings.
NU.nl asked the Producers Alliance, which was responsible for drawing up the protocol, how the organization views the recordings for the Vaes reality series. NU.nl has not yet received a response.
Richard Groenendijk with Katja Schuurman on Bonaire. (Source: Instagram / Richard Groenendijk)
Richard Groenendijk with Katja Schuurman on Bonaire. (Source: Instagram / Richard Groenendijk)
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International stars are also doing it
It does not only happen in the Netherlands: international stars also live a relatively ‘normal’ life during the corona pandemic, which sometimes costs them dearly. The big difference here is that the international stars are not at work when they do not take the virus into account.
For example, Rita Ora offered a restaurant owner thousands of euros to celebrate her 30th birthday with friends. The singer apologized afterwards and promised to transfer money that she had received for a performance just before to charity. And Kim Kardashian and her family were severely criticized for the exorbitant parties they held on private islands during the pandemic.
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