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Published November 9, 2023, 4:37 p.m. ET
Robert De Niro’s production company, Canal Productions, was found liable for gender discrimination and retaliation and ordered on Thursday to pay $1.2 million in damages to his former assistant. This brought to an end a high-profile legal battle in which the actor was accused of being an abusive boss and subjecting his subordinates to sexually inappropriate behavior
Jurors in federal court in Manhattan reached a verdict after about five hours of deliberations Thursday and a two-week trial in which the 80-year-old Oscar winner gave bombshell testimony as he tried to counter Graham Chase Robinson’s claims that he was a boss refute from hell.
“This is all nonsense!” The curmudgeonly star snapped on the witness stand on October 30th.
De Niro himself was not held liable, but Canal was.
The now long-running legal battle began when Canal sued Robinson, 41, in August 2019, accusing the once-trusted employee of stealing millions of frequent flyer miles, spending thousands on Ubers and dinners, and being a slacker who gorged himself – Watched “Friends” while she was supposed to be working.
Robinson, who worked for De Niro for 11 years, hit back with her own $12 million lawsuit, claiming De Niro never gave her a moment off, limited her to stereotypically feminine tasks like cleaning his sheets, and underpaid her , because she was a woman and subjected her to sexually abusive behavior, such as scratching his back or talking to her on the phone while he urinated.
“I’m vice president of production and finance and I order vacuum cleaners,” Robinson scoffed during her own court testimony on November 7.
Robert De Niro sued his former assistant for $12 million, claiming she stole frequent flyer miles from him and abused Gabrielle Bass’ expense privileges
Robinson also claimed she was incessantly bullied by De Niro’s friend Tiffany Chen, who she called a “sociopath” and who conspired to fire her and denigrate her reputation.
While De Niro admitted he once called Robinson a “royally spoiled brat” when she failed to wake him up for an important appointment, he insisted he was never abusive.
He also admitted to asking her to scratch his back once or twice, but angrily called it “nonsense” that there was anything sexual about it.
“Okay, twice? You got me! I say this is nonsense,” he ranted during his testimony. “It was never done with any disrespect.”
Graham Chase Robinson accused De Niro of sexually abusing her and treating her like his “office wife” Gregory P. Mango
De Niro was particularly outraged by the frequent flyer miles Robinson allegedly stole – which were worth about $60,000.
He testified that she was allowed to use his miles, but that he expected her to follow an “honor system” and accept amounts within reason.
Instead, De Niro’s lawyer said she stole his miles and transferred millions into her name when she sensed her job was in jeopardy.
“She never did a million miles at once. And then, all of a sudden, in early 2019, with all this stuff going on… all of a sudden she transfers 5 million miles into her account,” attorney Richard Schoenstein told jurors in his closing remarks on Nov. 8.
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