Paul Henri de Leeuw is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor. De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless, he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed. Many obscure musical acts were featured in his shows, many of which managed to gain national fame after they had been in De Leeuw's show. VARA has since continued his shows apart from a few interruptions, often with considerable success. In the early nineties, De Leeuw also had some shows celebrating the new year. In the 1993–1994 show he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6". This led to a lawsuit by the RTL company, who demanded that De Leeuw withdraw his joke. He and his husband, Stephan Nugter, have adopted two children: son Kas and son Tobey. De Leeuw has had many hit singles in the Netherlands. He is most famous for: Vlieg met me mee, Ik wil niet dat je liegt / Waarheen, waarvoor, and 'k Heb je lief. Since the beginning of his television and singing career he released albums and singles, always becoming a big success. On Koninginnedag 2007 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
25th Anniversary
De Leeuw until mid-2009 hosted the weekly chat and comedy show Mooi! Weer De Leeuw. On 29 November 2008 he celebrated his 25th television anniversary by staging a 12-hour marathon. Not forgetting the reason Mooi! Weer De Leeuw happened, he invited his one-time collaborator to reprise one item from Kopspijkers; other guests included comedians Herman van Veen and Brigitte Kaandorp, and singer/musical actor Danny de Munk.
De Leeuw is, despite being famous for a long time in the Netherlands, best-known internationally for presenting the results of the Dutch televote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. De Leeuw was supposed to present the televote by simply thanking the presenters, performers and fans, before giving the result, but instead the openly gay De Leeuw gave his mobile number to the male presenter Sakis Rouvas live on-air, and made other comments which somewhat lengthened the Dutch results. De Leeuw also remarked that Rouvas and his female co-presenter Maria Menounos reminded him of Will & Grace. As the results were live and required for the contest to continue, De Leeuw could not be cut off until he finished giving the voting results. De Leeuw's actions resulted in negative comments from the commentators, with the BBC's Terry Wogan calling the act "pathetic" and asking "Who selected this ?" during the United Kingdom coverage of the contest. Other commentators, like the Portuguese Eládio Clímaco, didn't translate properly the gay remarks and said "he was saying that they really look like Greeks". De Leeuw presented the votes again for the Netherlands at the 2007 contest, and that time did not cause quite as much of a stir as he did the year before.
Animal rights dispute and controversy
During a 2008 episode of Mooi! Weer De Leeuw, a vegan streaker wanting to draw attention to animal suffering managed to enter the sound stage. His body was covered in slogans such as "Stop animal suffering" and "Meat is murder". De Leeuw stopped security from escorting him from the stage to talk with him. De Leeuw to pull the man onto his lap and started poking at his underwear, insisting on "seeing his meat". As the man stood up, De Leeuw pulled down and eventually ripped off his underwear, saying, "then you must properly streak; off with those briefs." The streaker later filed a police report, although the molestation charges have since been dropped. Some parents were shocked by the incident as the show was targeted at families as well.
Israeli broadcast commotion
De Leeuw identifies as a strong Eurovision Song Contest follower with his own perspectives and beliefs. He presented the Dutch Eurovision occasionally as a host and commentator in 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2007. In 1998 and 1999 together with Linda de Mol. In 1995 a lot of commotion came out of this because he had started a tirade and outburst against the Israeli songAmen.
